Policeman kills tailor over alleged stolen clothes, family kicks

Mon, Aug 27, 2018 | By publisher


Crime

The family of a 25-year-old tailor, Muhammed Bashir, has demanded justice after he was allegedly beaten to death by a policeman attached to the Kofare Police Outpost, Yola, Adamawa State.

PUNCH Metro learnt that Bashir was eating with his brother at their house when the policemen arrested him on August 10 for allegedly buying stolen clothes.

It was gathered that two unidentified men brought clothes to Bashir, for which he reportedly made an advance payment of N1,500.

A representative of the family, Mustapha Ribadu, who spoke to PUNCH Metro, claimed that Bashir was arrested and beaten to a coma by an officer, identified simply as Kaka, at the police post before he was rushed to a nearby clinic.

He said, “The police handcuffed and took him to the police post on Friday. On Saturday, his elder brother went to the station to give him food and was also detained and locked up in a different cell.

“The elder brother heard when Muhammed was crying while the officers were torturing him on August 12.

“They beat him until he was exhausted. When the officers sensed that something was wrong, they took him to a nearby clinic. The clinic rejected him, saying the case was too severe for them to handle.

“They took him to a health facility in the barracks, but the doctor there rejected him too. From there, he was moved to the Yola Specialist Hospital where he spent some days.

“He was transferred from the specialist hospital to the FMC, Yola, where he died around 3.30am on August 18.”

Ribadu, who alleged that the officers did not investigate the alleged theft before torturing Bashir, urged the state command to serve justice on the erring officers.

“The police have no right to torture someone; their duty is to investigate cases reported,” Ribadu said.

The state Commissioner of Police, Abdullahi Ibrahim, did not pick his calls and had yet to respond to a text message from our correspondent as of the time of filing this report. – Punch

– Aug. 27, 2018 @ 9:19 GMT |

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