Suruche
Ukah Uchechukwu Anthony aka Suruche has cried out after being allegedly arrested and tortured by police officers in Lagos state for not wearing a shirt.
Anthony, who spoke to SaharaReporters on Monday, recounted how he was arrested by the men of the Lagos Police Command in Ikeja and driven to the State Criminal Investigation Department in Panti where he was tortured for crimes he did not commit.
He explained that he was being driven by an Uber cab driver last Tuesday evening when he was stopped by some policemen and taken into their van.
They also ordered him to pay the cab driver before they took him to Panti.
When asked what the police claimed was the reason for his arrest, Suruche said the policemen first alleged that he did not put on clothes and later brought out displayed some strange substance, saying it was found with him after the cab driver had left with his car.
The victim narrated that he was really tortured and later he knew that he was picked for mistaken identity.
“They whisked me away to the station lying to me that the DPO (Divisional Police Officer) wanted to see me and left my Uber driver. They even made me pay the Uber driver. It was around 11 PM along Ikeja under bridge.
“I was beaten blue and black at Panti and later they realised it was the wrong person they have picked. I think I’m having the trauma from this whole incident.
“They brought out some substance and something like glass and said it was what I took. I was telling them you didn’t find anything on me. I shouted at them that stop lying against me and they started slapping and beating me,” Suruche lamented.
He gave an account of others he met during his two days travails, saying, “There are a lot of innocent people, fathers, mothers, children. We all sat in the rain at the state command on the ground while it rained heavily. Tears rolled down my eyes. Thousands of innocent Nigerians are treated like this every day.”
It took the intervention of a human rights activist group which came to his rescue on Friday after receiving the information.
