Abiola Oluga, a graduate of the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta in Ogun State, has narrated how officers from the Ibara Police Station arrested him and then labelled him a suspected cultist while he was still in their custody.

The disgruntled graduate told FIJ that he was standing just outside his father’s house in Ibara on February 3 when the police officers from the Ibara Police Station, led by Lateef Balogun, the divisional police officer (DPO), arrested him.

According to Oluga, the officers were randomly arresting men in his area, and he watched them, but one officer charged at him while he watched and then accused him of recording them.

“The officer collected my phone and went through it but found nothing, yet he kept hitting me with a stick and forcing me to enter their vehicle. We were about seven people who knew nothing but were arrested,” Oluga told FIJ.

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He said the officers did not take him and the six others to their police station at Ibara immediately but instead drove them to Lafenwa Police Station, where they detained them for about four hours.

Knowing his family would be waiting for him at Ibara Police Station, the police took him to Ibara after they had paraded him as a suspected cultist, he said.

“At Ibara Police Station, they detained me for two days. On the third day – the day they released me – they transferred me to Eleweran. At Eleweran, they found nothing on me despite running several checks on my phone,” Oluga said.

“On getting home, my brother handed me a copy of the February 25 PUNCH to read. The story reads that I was a suspected cultist. All the while, an investigation was still ongoing at Eleweran. My lawyer gave the police seven days to retract their statement on the issue, but they failed to listen.”

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Oluga’s brother, who went to Ibara Police Station before his release, told FIJ that Lateef Balogun, the DPO, was arrogant and unnecessarily mean.

“The second day, when we got to Lateef, he said we could not bail out my brother because they had transferred the case to Eleweran. He could not give us authority. He said he studied chemistry and would teach my brother, who studied mathematics, a lesson,” he said.

“He said he knew my brother was brilliant but not intelligent and he would teach him a lesson. We served him and the Ogun State police a letter on February 15, and they failed to respond during the seven days.

When FIJ called Omolola Odutola, the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), for comments, she requested that the source call her to explain himself, but he refused because his letter addressed to her was not responded to.