During a raid, Oyo police arrested an "innocent man standing in front of a shop."

Kayyus Taiwo, whose Twitter handle is @taokayaode, described how he was harassed and wrongly detained by members of the Oyo State Police Command for standing in front of a business centre.

Taiwo said that he was detained on October 12 while waiting for the proprietor of the business centre to arrive so that he could duplicate papers.

Taiwo said in a long Twitter thread on October 20 that those police officers had harassed and hurt him on the day in question.

As Taiwo stated, "On Wednesday, October 12, 2022, I was harassed and assaulted by the Nigeria Police Force and wrongfully detained in a cell overnight." " On my way home from work, my supervisor instructed me to assist him to file an application at a computer centre. To do this, I went to a prominent market in Ibadan. I researched the market and discovered a location, but the lady indicated she was unable to execute the job. She then gave me another location to me.

When I arrived, the business was closed from the outside, but the inside was unlocked; there was a sign posted outside that said, "Wait for me, I'll be back in a flash." Consequently, I had to wait. While waiting, this officer arrived. They numbered between seven and nine.

Only a small number of them wore uniforms, while the others wore muftis. They exploded the market, and several people fled. "

His confidence is betrayed.

Taiwo said that he did not budge an inch from where he stood out of a sense of innocence and trust that he had no evidence incriminating him.

"I did not flee since I had nothing to hide. While I was standing there, they came back and asked what I had in my bag. I told them everything.

"It had two pens, one exercise book, my voter and work identification cards, a phone charger, a power bank, and my oga's money."

However, Taiwo's confidence and the innocuous objects in his luggage were insufficient to keep him out of trouble with the authorities.

One of them, maybe their supervisor, simply ordered them to take me; they just took me onto their bus (a white-painted unofficial bus). 
He said that other arrests were made on the route to the station.

I entered and asked them a variety of questions, including 'where are you taking me, what did I do, and what is the name of your station?' I even called my supervisor, who asked me the same questions and asked to talk with them, but they did not respond. They confiscated my phones, and my boss continued to call, "he stated. 
However, they did not let me answer my calls. For about 10 minutes, we continued going. They stopped en route to see someone at a large complex. "

A Shout for Help

At this moment, Taiwo's concern for his own safety increased.

I would have been scared if they hadn't impersonated police officers and abducted me. In the meantime, just around three of them remained on the bus with me, "he wrote. I was able to get to the door and yell for assistance, stating that I had been abducted and that someone should assist me.

I continued to scream as if it were my last means of life, but they never stopped pounding me. I was overpowered and placed in the back of the car, where I was shackled and even threatened.

Brutality and repression

As Taiwo continued to yell for assistance, the cops ran back to where the bus was parked.

"At that point, they all came onto the bus and began pounding me to return." "I continued to yell, but they continued to strike me with the weapons in their hands," he wrote. "Later, we saw another bus like theirs with their policemen inside, and they turned me over to them. There, I discovered another man whom they had similarly tortured, and they pulled one shackle from my hands and used it to bind him as well.

"They left the place because I made a lot of noise, and people were filming us," she said.

THE TRANSFER OF THEIR VICTIMS

Later, Taiwo's 'abductors' would move him to a different car.

"We subsequently saw a similar bus with its cops inside. "They turned me over to them, where I discovered another man whom they had also tortured, and they took one of my handcuffs and used it to bind him as well," he wrote.

Within a few minutes, the two buses were completely occupied. They transported us all to their station after 7 p.m. Before we entered the station, they gave us our baggage. " Attempted to connect with his relatives were rejected. "

As soon as Taiwo received his suitcase, he rushed to his phone to call his supervisor and family members.

"While attempting to respond to my brother's text, I got my phone out of my bag and messaged my employer," he wrote.

One of their policemen saw me typing, approached me, smacked me, and took my phone.

"They took our statements and took us straight to jail, even though we hadn't done anything wrong. They tried to get me to go into the cell, but I refused and asked them to bring my brother and employer instead."

The officer forced me inside and shut the gate. The men inside then began hitting me for not entering in the first place. Even though I had been hurt, he took the money out of my pocket after asking if the things in there were animals.

"HE REGAINED HIS FREEDOM AT A COST"

Taiwo said that he finally spent a night in jail for no apparent reason.

He added, "I spent the night there with the stench, the heat, and the aches." "The next day, between 12 and 1 p.m., my brother bailed me out (with money), leaving just four of the nine of us who had spent the night in their cell."

POLICE REACT

The Oyo State Police Command responded to the complaint on Twitter by saying that Taiwo had been told to talk to the Commissioner of Police about the problem.

The police said, "In the spirit of impartiality and openness, he was provided the direct phone number of the Commissioner of Police." In another tweet, the police said that the Police Commissioner has ordered a comprehensive inquiry into the incident.

Culled from:https://fij.ng/article/oyo-police-arrest-innocent-man-standing-in-front-of-a-shop-during-raid/