Barely four months after a 27-year-old
Chibuike Edeh, a staff of Protea Hotel was
allegedly killed in controversial
circumstances over an alleged missing
N48,000, another victim, Benson Obode, a
27-year-old car dealer whose corpse was
found deposited at the Edo State Central
Hospital has sparked off a protest in Benin
City. Late Benson was alleged to have been
tortured to death while in police custody.
PATRICK OCHOGA reports.


The discovery of the body of the late Benson
Obode, a 27-year-old car dealer at the
mortuary of the Central Hospital in Benin
who had been in the custody of the men of
the Nigeria Police, again brought to mind
questions of cases of alleged extra-judicial
killing by security personnel across the
country.

The late Benson, according to family
members, was a humble young
businessman whose source of livelihood
was derived from profits he earned from his
car business which he used to assist his
aged mother with in Benin City. But
unknown to the mother and other family
members, May 21, 2015 would be the last
day they would see their breadwinner. He
was arrested by a team of armed policemen
from Lagos command accompanied with
some officer from the Edo State Police
Command.

The elder sister to the late Benson, Mrs
Osawaru Izeyi, said Benson who had spent
the night in her place the previous night had
helped her to sweep the compound and
then left for his apartment but just few
minutes after, she was called that her
younger brother was in trouble.
A call for which she quickly left what she
was doing and dashed to the scene only to
be confronted with the sight of her brother
being held down by neighbours and the
landlord who said the Police had come for
him for an undisclosed crime.
Eventually, the Police who claimed they
came from Lagos, took her brother away to
the state police command headquarters.

Two days later, they were told he has been
taken to Abuja. Later again, they were told
that he has been taken to Lagos. Till date,
nothing was known about Benson.
She said the arrest of Benson was the
beginning of a long search for her brother in
all the police commands and formations
where she was told to go for the search.
This, according to Mrs Osawaru, heightened
her suspicion that some sinister things must
have happened to her brother.
Narrating her ordeal before newsmen in
Benin City, Izeyi who broke down in tears
intermittently said, a legal practitioner in
Lagos had written the police but no
response had been received from the police
authority about her younger brother’s
whereabouts and neither had he been
charged to any court for any criminal
offence before information reached them
that the body of Benson was located at the
Central Hospital mortuary in Benin, stone
cold.

She said that her aged mother who stays
with her since they lost their father few
years ago has become hypertensive, always
asking for her son.
“Yesterday, she just told me to take her to
Lagos to where I don’t know. Anytime she
hears me on phone, she will run to hear if
there is any news about Benson.”
Her fears, she said, has increased because
one of the policemen confronted her for
bringing a lawyer to the station because of
her brother.
She said her brother was a responsible
person. “He (Benson) passed the night in my
house and in the morning, he swept the
compound and left to his rented apartment.
I was later called on phone that people were
holding him and when I got there, I saw his
landlord and other people holding him
down. I asked what happened and he said
he doesn’t know but that they said the police
came to arrest him but that he couldn’t tell
what offence he had committed. Not quite
long after, the policemen came back in a
Toyota Highlander. They wore earrings and
dreadlocks. If not for the police colour on
their rifles, I would have doubted if they
were indeed real policemen. I asked them of
what my brother had done, they said I didn’t
have any right to ask them questions. I
begged that they should tell me but they did
not talk to me. One of them collected my
phone. I had to go back home, dressed up
and went back to the state command. We
saw the policemen and tried to talk to them
but they did not allow us to talk at all.
“We waited endlessly to see who could talk
to us but nobody did. We went to see OC
SARS here in Edo State but he did not attend
to us too. They only told us later that he
bought a stolen vehicle and that he was an
armed robber; I was surprised. He stayed
with me for a long time and he never took
my money. If he didn’t have money, he
always requested from me and I would give
him. The policeman insisted that he is a thief
and that they are ‘scorpion SARS’ from
Lagos.
“The next day, May 22nd, we went back with
a lawyer since nobody was listening to us so
that they could talk to him and if possible,
see my brother so that we could ask him
some questions. But they did not allow the
lawyer to talk to them. The lawyer waited
and eventually, they said he was an armed
robber but even then, they did not allow the
lawyer to see him. He later told me “na
lawyer you carry come, you go waka, you go
tire.” I asked of what that could mean. The
following day, May 23rd, when we got there,
he said they had moved my brother to Abuja
and we later called a lawyer in Abuja to help
us search police stations there. He went
there but could not see my brother. Later,
the police told us again that they had taken
him to Ikeja, Lagos. My uncle who is a
policeman went there and searched several
police stations but did not see him.”
She said Benson, used to sell cars. “He is 26.
He goes to Cotonu; buys cars and sell them
with little gains. Sometimes, people send
cars from abroad and he helps them to
market them. He has never been linked with
any act of violence at all and he never told
me he had any issue with anybody. They
have been staying with me since our father
died. Assuming he is a stubborn person, we
won’t take it like this. I don’t know what to do
again; we are tired. My mother is in my
house and she is worried. Once she heard
any phone call, she would jump up and
come to me to ask, ‘What are they saying
about my son?’ Only yesterday, she said I
should take her to Lagos. I asked her, ‘To do
what?’ She said I should just take her there.
We are tired and confused,” she stated.
A copy of the family’s letter to the
Commissioner of Police in Lagos State by
Peter Ehijinwa of Peter Ehijinwa & Co, dated
June 29, 2015, identified the team that
travelled to Benin to arrest Benson as
Corporal Adeleke Adedeji, Corporal Abenna
John, Corporal Henry Shobowale and
Corporal Oniyo Musa. “They arrived Benin
on May 18, 2015 in a Toyota Highlander Jeep
and arrested Benson Obode on May 21,
2015.

“Our client is in serious apprehension as to
what happened to their son because they
have not heard from him. The family has
made frantic effort to see him in Lagos but
were told that he is not there. We therefore
pray you to go into this matter so that our
client will know the situation of his case. Our
client is eager to know the whereabouts of
their son,” the letter read.
Protest Over Discovery of Corpse
Information however got to the family of the
late Benson that his corpse had been at the
Central Hospital, Benin. It was said to have
been deposited by some policemen led by
one Corporal Oniyon Musa some few weeks
ago, a development which sparked off
protest and outrage by family members
including members of the civil society in the
state.
They accused the police of extra-judicial
killing and called on the Inspector General
of Police, Solomon Arase, to immediately
unravel circumstances that led to the death
of Benson.

The protesters who stormed the premises of
the Edo State House of Assembly, Edo
Government House and headquarters of
Edo State Police Command, said they want
an independent autopsy to ascertain the
actual cause of Benson’s death.
An elder brother of Benson, Solomon, said
the police was yet to inform the family of
what happened to Benson since he was
arrested, alleging that N200,000 cash,
phones and ATM cards belonging to his late
brother were still missing.
He said the brother’s body was deposited at
the morgue as Benson Agu instead of
Benson Obode.
According to him, “Until now, they have not
told the family anything. They broke the
news to journalists in Lagos and not the
family. We don’t know what has happened to
our brother. How could somebody you
arrest be mobbed?
“We saw him at the morgue that he was
killed by torture and was shot. His landlord
who was also arrested said my brother was
tied and hung on a tree while blocks were
placed on his chest.
“We have informed our lawyers. They have
written to the IGP and we are asking the
police to produce our brother. They said the
boy bought a stolen car but the complainant
we do not know. How did he die? The police
should tell the family what happened.”
Meanwhile, Edo Civil Society Organisation
through its public relations officer, Comrade
Osazee Edigin, said Nigerians deserve an
explanation on the death of Benson. The
organisation condemned the alleged extra-
judicial killing and urged the authorities to
bring the said officer(s) involved to justice.
However, when contacted, a police source
said the state police command has set up a
special team to investigate the matter. Also,
attempts to speak with the Edo State police
image-maker, Stephen Onwochie, were
unsuccessful.

Source: www.leadership.ng/features/452530/how-a-27-year-old-car-dealer-was-murdered-in-police-custody

Cc: lalasticlala, ishilove

Wow

someone needs to call these guys to order!

hmm

i hear

Again....The police. For how long are we going to keep quiet while these people continue killing innocent citizens, collecting bribes, taking the law into their hands and messing up the image of our country.

President Buhari...Please you need to do something about this. It is getting too much.

#ReformTheNigerianPolice

Nigerian police are sick ass niggas, must u turtured suspects to the extent of death? Buhari needs to look into this, it aint funny anymore.

Nigeria police again?

poverty is wicked.... infact its a curse...
if this dude family were well to do and know their way... this sad story would not occur...
poor guy's genuine hustle lead to his wicked death....
and for those police men that did this.. your end is worst...and that of your generation.
ps... for those whose parents are police personnel.. you need to be prayerful, a lot of you are under curses you know nothing about... the reward for the sins of the parents shall indeed visit the parents and dwell on their children and their children's children.....
MOST of the police death you hear are never at oldage and always tragic.... accompanied with great sorrow, destruction and poverty upon their families.... hardly u hear a police man dying at 70yrs and above...
if you are a police man change cause ur judgement day isnt far...