Dupe Bobade, an Ondo State indigene, has narrated how police officers of the Ondo State Police Command tortured 17-year-old Tolu, his nephew, to death on February 15.

Following Tolu’s death, some youth in the community grouped themselves in anger and razed down the community police station.

Dupe narrated how the incident unfolded to The Punch in an interview published on Saturday. He said the family was denied access to Tolu’s body.

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HOW TOLU LANDED IN POLICE CUSTODY

Dupe explained that a policeman came to arrest a boy named Agagu in Ifon in the Ose Local Government Area. Tolu saw the officer beating the boy in the presence of his parents, and he decided to plead with the officer to stop the assault.

Rather than listen to the pleading, the officer insisted on arresting Tolu, too.

“On that fateful day, the boy was walking along the road when he saw a police officer brutalising one of his friends called Agagu. He went over to beg the officer to stop. As he was asking what happened, the police officer turned to him and handcuffed him,” Bobade said.

“While handcuffing him, a man called Lishilishi drove by on a motorbike. He asked the policeman what the issue was. He told the police not to handcuff the boy, describing Tolu as a small boy who wasn’t part of the troublemakers in the community, but the policeman didn’t listen and refused to release him.

“At that time, the policeman had already handcuffed one of Tolu’s hands. Lishilishi asked the officer to remove the handcuff. Once again, the officer refused. Lishilishi said, ‘Okay, don’t worry, give me this boy. I will take him to the station and speak with the Divisional Police Officer (DPO)’. The officer then released the boy with one hand still handcuffed. Lishilishi put Tolu on his bike and took him to the police station.”

Lishilishi eventually got the officer to release Tolu to him and promised to present him at the station personally.

“When they arrived at the station, the DPO was not there. Lishilishi pleaded with the police officer to remove the handcuff and allow him to take Tolu home, reiterating that the boy was not a troublemaker. But the officer didn’t listen and refused to release Tolu. Following this refusal, Lishilishi said, ‘Okay, put him in your custody. I’ll come back when the DPO is around.’ So, Lishilishi left the station,” Bobade explained.

TORTURED TO DEATH

The man denied Tolu’s involvement in any dispute prior to the day of his demise.

He said it was untrue that the deceased had an issue with someone on Valentine’s Day.

“That is a lie. Nothing like that happened. That claim is false, and anyone saying that is lying. The police went and arrested the friend of the deceased. The friend is still at the Federal Medical Centre as I speak to you,” he explained further.

“They arrested the boy, beat him in his house in the presence of his father, and surrounded the house. It was when they were dragging him along the road that Tolu saw them and went to beg the police officers to leave him alone. There was no fight between our family and any other family in the community.

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Community youth already had pent-up anger against the police in the community due to their extortion culture. Tolu’s death, therefore, enraged them.

“When they took Tolu to the police station, he collapsed and died, this triggered the youth of the town because the police had been brutalising and extorting money from the youth. They were collecting N200,000 and N100,000 for bail,” Tolu’s uncle explained.

“Not long after, a group of people called Lishilishi back and told him that the policemen had brutalised the boy (Tolu) and that he had collapsed. They had tortured him inside the police station. After he collapsed, they rushed him to Adelabu Hospital in the community, but he died before they could get there. They then took his body to the hospital. After that, they took the body from Ifon to the Federal Medical Centre in Owo without informing the family. It was a staff member at the Federal Medical Centre who contacted the family in Ifon.

“The corpse is still where the police kept it. We, the family, have not had access to the body because the police took him to the hospital after he died in their custody during torture. How can we bury a body we haven’t seen?”

Tolu’s family are now demanding justice, saying the commissioner’s media account of the incident was a lie.