Nigeria's OPC Vigilantes Brutalise Woman For Condemning Her Brother’s Maltreatment In Lagos, Police Accused Of Releasing Main Suspect Soon After Arrest
According to her, she was assaulted for speaking against the maltreatment of her brother by the security organisation in Ijora community.
ALagos State resident, Tope Segun has narrated how she was brutalised by operatives of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), a vigilante organisation in southwest Nigeria.
According to her, she was assaulted for speaking against the maltreatment of her brother by the security organisation in Ijora community.
Tope, in a video obtained by SaharaReporters, narrated that the incident started when she visited the OPC lodge in Ijora to plead for the release of her brother who was brought to them for correction. She stated that she realised her brother had been maltreated to the point that his mouth was bleeding. This prompted her to urge the OPC vigilantes to release him so that they could mourn their father who recently passed on together.
She said that instead of granting her request, they started hitting her.
She accused one of the vigilantes identified as Ahmed of striking her with a belt and leaving marks and bruises all over her body.
She said, “What happened was that my brother is a stubborn person and this was why he was taken to the OPC for correction.
“But the way the OPC officers were dealing with him was so merciless that his mouth started bleeding. The person his case was reported to happens to be a guy that once ‘toasted’ (tried to date me) and this made him query my presence there when I went to urge them to stop beating him because my father had just died and we were about to do his eight days (funeral).
“I asked them to allow my brother to go but they insisted that he would not be allowed to return home. And they started slapping me. He later went to take a belt and used it to beat me till I fled their lodge. Yet, the officer did not stop, he kept pursuing me to beat me. The guy, Ahmed, toasted me and I did not accept to date him. He used my brother who was taken to them as an opportunity to beat me.”
Tope said she reported the incident to the police, who arrested Ahmed but eventually released him without her knowledge.
She continued: “This made me use the police to arrest him and he was invited but I never heard anything again since then. I later heard that he was released without informing me. Police called me but I told them I was not around, and that I went for a vigil.”
During a telephone conversation with SaharaReporters, Tope further said that the police called her and Ahmed for dialogue on Tuesday but she said it appeared “they just want us to write a statement and this would not stop me from taking this matter to court on my own.”
When contacted, Ahmed, the OPC operative, accused of brutalising Tope, said it was not true that the security organisation maltreated Tope’s brother as she claimed.
He said, “Her brother was brought to us by her husband because he took Colorado (Synthetic cannabinoid). And the normal thing we always do for anybody who has taken ‘colos’ is to ask them to do some exercise for them to be calm.”
He added that Tope’s altitude when she visited them prompted him to beat her, adding that the bruises on her body were caused by a fall.
He said, “That lady came and started abusing us and causing a riot with my men. Instead for her to ask what was happening, she started fighting us and raining insults on us. It was in the middle of this that I hit her with the belt I was holding and she fell on a wall. The injuries she showed you were inflicted on her because she fell on the wall.
“The following day, she approached a lawyer and when the lawyer realised I was the one involved, he gave Tope Segun N50,000 in my presence because she insisted that she needed some money to take care of herself. The lawyer knows I am a good person and could not believe I could have beaten a woman.”
He denied that the police had been covering up the issue.
“The police even called us today where the Divisional Police Officer scolded me and let me realise I was wrong for treating a woman like that,” he said.
All attempts made by SaharaReporters to get the police's comments and reaction to the story were futile.
The spokesperson for the state police command, Benjamin Hundeyin, did not answer his calls. He also did not reply to messages sent to his mobile lines.
Efforts to reach the DPO also faile
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