Ekiti: Miss Bukola Ajayi, 72 hours after, she's still in detention, for voicing her opposition to the positioning of a polling booth in front of her father's house
From Toba Suleiman in Ado-Ekiti, 05.08.2009
Friday, May 8, 2009

She came, she saw? and she was conquered and subsequently captured by men of the Nigeria Police Force for voicing her opposition to the positioning of a polling booth in front of her father's house.




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Three days after, Miss Bukola Ajayi is still in police detention, awaiting her next fate ? either to be charged to court or released to return to her father's house in peace.

Under the rule of law, she is not to be detained beyond 48 hours before she is charged to court.

But in Ekiti, rule of law is a distant thought in the fiasco that has greeted the controversial rerun governorship election in the past two weeks.

Meanwhile, the 35 suspected thugs arrested at the residence of Senator Ayo Arise on the day of the rerun on April 25 were released 24 hours later.

The picture of Miss Ajayi being brutalised and bundled into the back of a police van last Tuesday at Oye-Ekiti is one of the enduring images of the Ekiti crisis.

Ajayi, a hairdresser, was arrested shortly before the commencement of the rescheduled governorship election along side 10 others, mostly males, who were being picked up at various locations within Oye-Ekiti.

According to her, she took the action to protect her father, who is partially blind, from being attacked by some likely aggrieved politicians in the area, who might not be pleased with the outcome of the election results.

The lady managed to explain her ordeal while she was being assaulted publicly by not less than five armed riot policemen, who were even threatening to shoot her in the leg, if she refused to cooperate with them.

She said during the previous election held on April 25, which was later cancelled, her father?s house was riddled with bullets.

It was gathered that the lady was away in the morning, until somebody went to inform her what the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was planning to place a polling booth in front of her father's house.

It was when she came back that she showed her resistance to the plan.

Unfortunately, this seemingly unusual resistance pitted her with the security operatives, especially men of the riot policemen, who held her by her jeans trousers and threw her inside their waiting van, at the end of which she was taken to an undisclosed destination.

Ajayi, who was whisked away in the van with registration number NPF 982, is still being held in police custody.

Her old father, who has for a long time been restricted indoor because of his condition and her old mother were left alone at home, without the knowledge of where she is, her current position or when is she likely to gain her freedom.

Her old mother, popularly called ?Mama Osogbo?, who after some time managed to explain in their native dialect that when the incident occurred on Tuesday, some people in the compound went to the nearby police station, where she was first taken to, but the police told them that she had been moved to Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

She said since then, there had been no news about her, other than some people telling them that by today, she would be released.

But contrary to the position of the Ajayi family, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Fatola Sikiru Olalekan, said the lady and her other co-accused were being arrested and detained for causing ?public disorder?.

He said the lady was arrested for her action which was ?notorious? and was ?uncalled for? in the presence of the law enforcement agents, especially during the conduct of the rerun election in the area.

The PPRO and the Provost Marshal told THISDAY that his investigation about her and other accused persons arrested for the same purpose, from the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was that the lady was a politician who belonged to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and was in support of a particular person in the area.

According to him, investigation was ongoing about her culpability in the allegation levied against her.

The PPRO, who said he could not say exactly when the lady would be let off the hook, pointed out that the outcome of the investigation would determine the level of her involvement in the offence she was being accused of.
http://odili.net/news/source/2009/may/8/201.html

What are we to blv, i understand from personal experience that Nigerian police are nothing to write home about and in fact, are in themselves symbols of public disorder. I really cant come to terms with this situation. Be that as it may- I hate people being treated like shit especially by pp who think they've gt the powers. Imagine these imbeciles, pulling a woman by her jeans, stripping dem of their underwears n even raping them at times, imagine these dreadful things we've becum accustomed to, I hate the Nigerian police Force, very useless institution-waste of space n time n energy, Fire burn them---the bad ones of course,

We need reorientation, every1, every agency, institutions, everything, This rebranding bizness i reckon has to be radically envisioned n implemented, otherwise, we are in for sm big time shit as ever,

I'd like sm tissue please,