In 2020, Gbenga (not real name) was arrested by policemen and detained for three nights in a police station in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, over a text message his friend sent him.

Gbenga, an undergraduate at the time, was on his way to meet with his friend when a policeman accosted him.

“What have I done? Why are you holding me?” He asked.

As though he were talking to no one in particular, the police officer kept mute and collected his phone.

His phone beeped in the hands of the policeman. It was a message from his friend: “Guy, how far? Confra dey fight. Do fast.”

Like a criminal, he was dragged to F Division Police Station, Tanke, and for three nights, he was detained, beaten and forced to admit he was a cultist. He was also denied arrest to legal representation.

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“I am not a cultist. I never was. I was handcuffed and beaten every minute I spent there. My friends came to check on me and attempted to bail me out, but they were also detained. My girlfriend was also detained when she came to see me at the station. In the end, I was asked to pay N200,000 as bail for my friends and me,” he told FIJ.

ONE TOO MANY CASES

Under the guise of wading off criminals in the state, police officers in Kwara often harass, extort and unlawfully detain youths. Stories like Gbenga’s are not unusual. Many other youths in the state have encountered a similar fate.

In 2022, Joshua Folakemi, a 300-level female history and international studies student at the University of Ilorin at the time, was arrested alongside her friends in Ilorin because “they looked like internet fraudsters”.

“We had just had lunch in a restaurant off-campus and were driving back when a police van overtook our vehicle and ordered us to halt. There were five of us in the vehicle. They started asking questions and said we looked like Yahoo boys. That was how we landed in police custody,” Joshua told FIJ.

In 2023, Pelumi Salako, a journalist, was arrested in Ilorin for possessing a laptop. Policemen searched him and found a laptop in his possession. They requested the receipt, and he told them he left it at home. He was then arrested and detained at the police headquarters in Ilorin until the state’s PPRO ordered his release after FIJ’s intervention.

A recent case of police extortion and abduction in the state involved a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member from whom N600,000 was extorted in May.

On May 5, @_youridolo, an X user, revealed how he was abducted by police officers in Ajase, Irepodun Local Government Area of the state. He was taken to an unknown destination, where he was ordered to open his bank apps and withdraw N600,000 from it so he could give it to them. Helpless and unsure of what would become of him if he refused, he obliged.

After he had “settled” them, they told him such actions were commonplace in the state’s capital

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Abdulmalik Abdulhameed, a resident of Kwara, told FIJ that this has been rampant since 2019 and every action taken towards eradicating it has ended in futility.

“People who come to school in Ilorin from other states always feel like they have entered a prison once they set foot on the soil. Many of my friends have been extorted by police officers in Kwara. They [police officers] could see N95,000 in someone’s account and ask you to transfer N90,000 to their accounts,” he said.

“The annoying part is when we tweet about these things, the senior officers would say the erring officers would be disciplined, only for us to see them in the streets harassing more people.”

VIOLATION OF THE NIGERIAN CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ACT

Section 35 of the Nigerian Constitution stipulates that an arrested person must be taken to court within 24 hours, and any period exceeding that is considered unlawful.

In Gbenga’s case, he was detained for three nights, denied access to legal representation, beaten and treated like a criminal. According to the provisions of the constitution, his detention was unlawful.

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Festus Ogun, a lawyer, told FIJ that the harassment, extortion and unlawful detention of citizens are not only violations of the law but a violation of people’s rights.

“The act of continually harassing citizens is a violation of the rights of the dignity of the human person guaranteed under section 34 of the constitution. It is also a violation of provisions of section 35 of the constitution, which frowns at unlawful detention of people,” Ogun told FIJ.

“Similarly, when you arbitrarily arrest people without reasonable or probable cause, simply to extort, harass and intimidate them, such arrest is unlawful, and so is any other detention that follows.

“In addition, it is the duty of the police to provide adequate security to Nigerians as stipulated under the police act. It is the height of unprofessionalism for police officers to turn themselves into armed robbers who are more interested in extorting helpless people. It is also an abuse of authority on the part of the police. Every officer of the law found wanting should be made to face the wrath of the law. Sadly, this impunity persists.”

While speaking with FIJ, Adetoun Adeyemi, the PPRO for Kwara State Police Command, said the state command had been urging its officers to be professional in their dealings with members of the public.

“We have been speaking to our members to be professional and shun activities that would paint them as unprofessional officers. We have also urged the public to contact us if they have any complaints about any of our officers,” she said.