A victim of police torture, unlawful arrest and detention, Mr. Timothy Ogbeye has fainted while giving testimony before the independent investigative panel on Human Rights violation by the defunct SARS and other units of the police.
Giving testimony before the panel, Mr. Ogbeye said on the 22nd of January 2020 he was about to go to Julius Berger to purchase granite stone with the sum of 1.5 million naira, when he received a call from his associate Sikiru Bashiru that some customers were at his car stand situated at Mpape, a suburb of the FCT, Abuja.
The complainant said he went back to his car stand in company of his sales boy, Yinka and met two gentlemen pricing a car, and one of them asked if he was Timothy and he answered in the affirmative.
Ogbeye said one of the men brought out a gun and threatened to shoot him if he moved an inch. He said the two men handcuffed him, Sikiru Bashiru and Yinka and took them away to Kwali police station where they were detained.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ogbeye told the panel that eight other police men who surrounded the car stand accused him of being an armed robber and that the cars in his stand were stolen vehicles.
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He also informed the panel that the sum of 1.5 million naira in his car which he wanted to use for the purchase of granite was no longer there after the police beat him thoroughly and drove away his four vehicles.
He alleged that he was beaten at the cell with iron, planks and was hanged upside down to the point that his hands and legs got paralyzed.
He was still speaking before the panel when he fainted.
The development which made the acting chairman of the panel, Garba Tetengi to adjourn further proceedings till 24th of next month for continuation of hearing.
