How Policemen Subjected My Son To Humiliating Search At Festac -By Sandra Ijeoma Okoye

As a Nigerian that is extremely averse to intimidation, exploitation and brutality by the police, I am naturally appalled seeing anyone go through the harassment which they normally perpetrate against the people. Unfortunately, it was difficult for me to accept the fact that my own son was recently a victim of police harassment. In order for Nigerians to learn from his sordid experience, I hereby present his recent encounter with them as he narrated to me but would anonymously leave his name out of the narration below.

He said, “When coming from Chemist near University of Lagos (UNILAG) in a cab, my friend and I were stopped by two policemen who were not adorning their uniforms but rather were in mufti. They identified their selves with their insignia, and resorted to grilling us. They asked where we were coming from and where we were headed to. We convincingly responded to their questions, and without further delay they let us go. But surprisingly, within a spate of 10 minutes after we were left off the hook by the policemen who were randomly operating on mufti in a commercial bus packed ahead of the cab we boarded, and which blocked the road had about four policemen; If not five disembarked from it.

“As I sat on the front seat, my friend at the back seat was joined by one of the policemen, and another as myself that sat with them but later joined those at the front seat. Same like the last two mufti policemen, they asked us where we were coming from and where we were going but this time around, they told the cab driver to keep driving and asked the other policemen outside the cab to follow us behind in the bus.

“As I made efforts to use my phone to inform my family members about what was going on, one of the policemen sitting at the rear of the vehicle, upon understanding my move, angrily warned, “Do not fiddle with your phone any longer, or else!” Whatever he meant by that is yet to be understood.

“When we got to the station, they called us out of the cab and told us to follow them inside. As at then I was already frustrated even as the transport fare we paid for was no longer tenable. And even at that, we were asked to submit our phone for thorough scrutiny.

“After submitting my phone to one of the policemen, he began to go through my telegram, and brazenly resorted to search for contacts he referred to as ‘clients’. At that point I knew what he was up to, and I stood up and told him that I want to see everything he was doing with my phone. With the humble request which I made, he got angry and shouted that I should sit down where I was. I stood my ground and told him again that I want to see what he was doing. He did not say any other thing, so I pried into what he was doing with the phone. He kept checking and checking till he saw some of my telegram trading communities. For the sake of clarity, I’m learning how to master forex trade. The next thing he said was that I am practicing cyber fraud. Being confused about his allegation, I kept asking “Me practicing cyber fraud?” Again he got angry, but this time he threatened me, and said, “If you ask me that question again, I will slap you and there’s nothing you can do about it. “You are a very stupid boy, do you think I’m mad?” The foregoing were his words. I smiled while I looked straight into hia eyes to ascertain what exactly he wanted to do.

“After a threatening me and accusing me of cyber fraud, he left my telegram and went to my WhatsApp. This time around, he searched for the word ‘AZA’. Just like I have on my telegram, I also have trading groups on my WhatsApp. He saw it and began accusing me of the losses my fellow traders made while trading. He said I was scamming them of their money. At this point I was pissed off with his judgement, to which I told him that when it comes to trading that it is normal to make both losses and gains, and that it all depends on the market”. As soon as I answered him, something was made clear, firstly

“After going through activities I made with my phone and couldn’t find any evidence to nail me, he dropped my phone and took up my friend’s phone, and went through the same process.

“While searching through his my friend’s phone, even as wanted to see what he was doing with his phone, the policeman who was going through his phone told him that if he wanted to see what he was doing he should sit down beside him but if he (the policeman) should find anything implicating, he would beat him. Unarguably not wanting the policeman to mischievously implicate him, my friend decided to sit with him.

“Having gone through my friend’s phone, he was embarrassingly asked if he sells molly (a brand of hard drug), and my friend bluntly told him he has never engaged in such monkey business, and that he never thought of engaging in it.

“Given the pressure the police mounted on us to bribe them, and our desperation to get off their hook, we gave them money, and as soon as that was done, they all started leaving the room telling us we can be going and that we should make it quick before their boss arrive at the station. With our cab driver already gone long before the inspection, I carried the luggages that belongs to my friend and myself. My friend wanted to call his dad to come, and pick him up because cause it would have being cumbersome to carry the luggage with motorcycle or tricycle. Without doubt, the call he made to his father drew the curiosity of the policemen, and they almost latched on the opportunity that were inherent in that move to humiliate and brutalize us. Be that as it may, we were able to extricate ourselves from their stranglehold”.