Published 29th Nov, 2023

By Daniel Ojukwu

Seyi Oduyiga, a barber, spent five days in custody of the Ogun State police before breathing his last on November 23, 2023.

The police claimed that the 39-year-old, whom they arrested on November 18, was a cultist their special tactical unit had been trailing for a while, but they offered very little to explain his death.

His relatives believe he was tortured to death but the police say he went berserk in the buildup to his death. After seeing photos of late Oduyiga and seeing marks suggesting torture, FIJ visited the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Eleweran, the very location where Seyi was last seen alive and in good health by any of his people.

A man who simply identified himself as Ajani, who had been arrested at the same location and time as Seyi but was freed a day later after his brother bailed him out, said he knew Seyi for two years, and he he was never a cultist, neither did he write a confessional statement admitting to be one.

“The police just kept saying he had tattoo, and he must be a cultist,” he said.

Not only did the police not have any proof he was a cultist, FIJ has found several reasons to believe that the police are indeed culpable in Oduyiga’s passing.

1.NO AUDIO OR VIDEO EVIDENCE OF ‘CONFESSION’

On Monday, FIJ also visited the Ogun State Police Command, where Omolola Odutola, the spokesman, said the police had not yet conducted an autopsy on Seyi yet, as there was no available audio or video confession from him before he died, and her office did not have a diagnosis for the medical emergency they said he suffered or a death certificate to indicate time of death.

She also claimed the police had been trailing him for a while, but he was not on any published wanted list, and his arrest was never published on the command’s social media handles or any media platform, as is the practice with the police.

When Seyi’s death went viral, Odutola’s office issued a statement on Twitter claiming his family’s allegation of wrongdoing was false. A part of the statement read: “Every other allegation is hereby debunked as the accurate position is what have been stated above.”

OGUN POLICE COMMAND PRESS RELEASE.
DEATH INCIDENT OF A SUSPECTED CULTIST IN POLICE CELL, OGUN POLICE COMMENCE AUTOPSY.
It is a fact of public knowledge that Sagamu town witnessed a series of cult clashes where 5 rival cultists were murdered.
Following an intelligence report
— Ogun State Police Command (@OgunPoliceNG) November 26, 2023

To debunk, however, is to show with proof that something is false. As the statement contained no proof, FIJ sought proof of the claims made by the police.

When FIJ asked Odutola if the police recorded Seyi’s alleged confession to cultism, she said, “It is the property of the police, but I know it is available. For everyone who is arrested for cultism, kidnapping, armed robbery or any alleged crime, there is a written statement.”

This statement, Odutola told us, could not be shown to us as it was the police’s property. She also did not tell us what the content of the statement was.

The police had no audio or video recording of Seyi confessing to being a cultist, but in saying they debunked Seyi’s family’s claims, they did not provide any evidence to back theirs.

2.POLICE ANNOUNCED PREVIOUS ARRESTS OF CULTISTS, BUT NOT ODUYIGA’S

The last time the Ogun State Police Command issued a statement announcing the arrest of suspected cultists in the state was on November 13, five days before they arrested Seyi.

In the release, the police said they got a tip-off from anonymous sources, and swung into action to arrest three men. During this raid, they found three dead bodies.

OGUN POLICE COMMAND PRESS RELEASE. 13/11/2023.

SUSPECTED RIVALRY CULT CLASH AND ARREST OF SUSPECTS
During a routine weekend patrol In Sagamu, by the Divisional Police Officer on Sunday, 12th November 2023. An intelligence was intercepted by the Divisional Police
— Ogun State Police Command (@OgunPoliceNG) November 13, 2023

Since then, there had been no other release or press publication annoucing other arrests.

In Odutola’s Sunday statement, however, she mentioned that the Sagamu area witnessed cult clashes that claimed the lives of five persons, and the police arrested two members of Buccaneer and Eiye confraternities. Seyi, according to the police, confessed to being a member of one of them. But the police never announced this particular arrest.

3.POLICE CLAIMED THERE WERE PUBLICATIONS ABOUT ODUYIGA BEING WANTED. FALSE!

When FIJ asked Odutola why the police did not publish the story of the arrest of two men they claimed were on a wanted list, Odutola said the command did not always publish names of suspects on social media, but there were media publications.

FIJ checked scoured the media for reports of that nature but did not find a single one. The first time Oduyiga’s name appeared in the news was after his death.

“Twitter handle is different from what is reported in public,” Odutola insisted. “We have days in a month when we do official press releases. It is not as if we do it everytime. We must do it every month.”

4.NOT AWARE OF ANY HOSPITAL DIAGNOSIS

“Usually we have people come in here and they fall sick, and sometimes it turns fatal like in Seyi’s case,” Odutola told FIJ when asked how a healthy barber’s life was cut short some days after getting arrested.

She said it was not the first time such an occurence had happened in the police, describing it as a usual occurence. Asked if the hospitals he was taken to provided any diagnosis for his fit of rage, Odutola could not provide any answers.

“We took him to the police hospital, and then he was transferred to a general hospital,” Odutola told FIJ. “I don’t know if there was any diagnosis, but the police hospital was the first responder. It was at the general hospital they pronounced him dead.”

She also did not know if a death certificate was issued, and did not know the time he died.

After asking questions on Seyi’s state of health, FIJ showed a picture of Oduyiga’s corpse to the PRO and observed it was her first time of seeing the body.

5.A STRANGE DEFINITION OF TORTURE

Odutola studied the full picture of the unclad deceased, before asking: “Have you ever seen where the police tried to hit someone in self defence?”

FIJ wondered if she was inferring that the marks on Seyi’s body were obtained while a policeman was attempting to defend himself. We showed her the marks on his inner thigh, hands and body, and she replied: “Do you know what they call torture?

“I used to hear torture is what makes people die, but I think it is when one has a particular ailment, and then one hits someone, and they just fall and die from that ailment.”

6.NO SHARP OBJECTS

Recalling that she that said in her press release that Oduyiga went beserk, she told FIJ that it may have been during this fit of rage that he may have bitten or hit someone who fought back.

Asked if there were sharp objects in the cell, which could explain the marks on his body, she said there was none. How then could Oduyiga have hit someone or himself when there was no sharp object around? How did then he sustain the torture marks seen by FIJ on his body?

THE AUTOPSY

Odutola promised in her statement that the state would conduct an autopsy to reveal the cause of Seyi’s death, but when FIJ asked when this autopsy was going to happen, she said she did not have a date yet.

“It is not a hidden thing,” she said. “When the family is ready to come forward, we will conduct the autopsy.

“We have not reached out to the family for the autopsy, but he who alleges should come forward. It is classified information, and my office is not handling that.”

Seyi left his wife Eniola and three children behind. What Eniola wants is to bury her husband and leave the matter in God’s hands. But there are other people who want justice.

Ojukwu is a reporter with FIJ in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.

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