A middle age woman, Tope Moore, has been arrested by the police in Lagos State over allegations that her younger brother, Bolaji, masterminded the killing of a resident in the Bariga area of the state.
According to her family, Tope’s ordeal began on June 10, when her younger brother, a suspected cultist and members of his gang allegedly stabbed one Osondu Obunneke to death at Famous Hotel in Bariga on June 9.
One of the relatives, who gave her name as Sola, said that Tope is being detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department at Panti, Yaba, over an offence she did not commit.
“Tope lives with her two children and our brother, Bolaji, at number 19 Mutairu Street Shomolu,” she said. “She operates a beer parlour and she is well known to all the policemen in the community as they patronise her. Tope went back home to look after her two children after she closed from her business on Monday and then left that night to her lover’ house to spent the night. She was fast asleep at the Igi- Olugbin Street residence of her lover when, about midnight, policemen attached the the Pedro Police Station stormed the house and arrested her as if she is a dog.
The police men came to her house on Monday night to look for Bolaji but when they did not see him, they started asking for Tope. That was how her 12 -year-old son, Toheeb, told the police that Tope was not at home. The police men threatened to shoot Toheeb and ordered him to take them to where his mother was. Other tenants woken by the noise were scared but none of them could protest the police manhandling of the boy. The policemen later took Toheeb at gun point in their vehicle to Igi- Olugbin Street where the mother was.
The building where Tope stayed with her lover had a brick fence and the gate was locked but the policemen scaled the fence and forced open the door to the room where Tope was fast asleep with just her night gown. The policemen started beating her and forced her out .Since the gate was locked, the policemen forced her to jump the fence holding a gun to her head and started questioning her. They were manhandling her in the process. The ordeal was too much for her that she urinated and passed faeces on herself. The police still had Osondu’s corpse in their van, and they made Tope to sit with the dead body for about 3 hours before she was later taken to the police station.”
Sola added that the policemen took the woman to Famous Hotel where they drank beer till 3.00am.; with Tope handcuffed and left in the van with the corpse.
“When I went to visit Tope at the police station, she still smelled of faeces and the urine she passed on herself; she was weeping and needed a bath,” she said. “I begged the policemen to allow her to cleanse herself and change into a clean dress. They later granted her bail in the afternoon after we paid N15,000 and she was allowed to go home.
Sadly, the policemen later stormed her house and she was rearrested and taken to the State Criminal Investigation Department at Panti Yaba. Initially, Panti rejected her but we were shocked when she was later detained in Panti. We, her family members, are sad that an innocent women and a mother of two is being detained for a crime she did not commit. Maybe they are using her as a bait to get to her brother but this is wrong and the law does not allow it.”
When contacted, the Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Umar Manko, expressed anger over the arrest of Tope. “If what you told me is true, then it is wrong the way this woman was arrested,” he said. “I have ordered the Divisional Police Officer of Pedro Police Station to come to my office tomorrow. I will get to the root of this matter.”
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