Police Allegedly Torture Breadwinner to Death in Bauchi

A 33-year-old breadwinner, Dauda Danladi, was allegedly tortured to death at police custody in Bauchi state.

The man, 33, according to report, was arrested by a combined team of policemen attached to the Yelwa Division and a vigilante team, in front of his shop located in Yelwa Kagadama, a suburb of Bauchi metropolis around 9pm on Thursday.

People familiar with the matter said the late breadwinner was tortured at the Yelwa Division, before he eventually gave up the ghost.

A former neighbour of the deceased at his business place, Liatu Nuhu, said that the police and the vigilante arrived in Gestapo style last Thursday and arrested people indiscriminately.

“I was doing my business when, suddenly, the police and some vigilantes came, more than 10 of them, started arresting people. The Divisional Police Officer got out of the vehicle and directed them, ‘arrest him! arrest him!’

“And that was how they arrested the boys playing snooker, others who were chatting, including the deceased who was standing in front of his shop.

“We kept telling them not to arrest him, we told them that he was our neighbour here and we knew him to be someone of good character. We asked why they would arrest him, but they still took him away.”

“Yesterday (Friday) in the morning, we went to the police station around 7am but they told us to stay at a far distance and wait for the DPO to come to the office. So, I decided to go to my place of work.

“By 10.15am, I returned, only for me to see the deceased’s wife crying profusely. When I asked her what happened, she told me that her husband was dead,” she said fighting back tears.

Reacting, the Commissioner of Police, Bauchi State, Sylvester Alabi, claimed five people were arrested with a revolver pistol in the area.

He noted that two of those arrested were later released because they were found innocent while the other two were still being held at the Police station.

He further said that the police was only trying to render help to the deceased as he was ‘gasping for breath’ during the raid at his area.

“The deceased was not even part of them, he was about 200 metres ahead. He was gasping for breath in his business place and the police assisted him to the hospital and then, he died.

“If police had not assisted him to the hospital, people would have said they are bad people. The police assisted, now na wahala (sic).

“I have told the PPRO to go to the media and tell people the correct version of the story,” he said.

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