Police tortured my brother to death, gave our family N50,000, bag of rice, petitioner tells NHRC Panel

A petitioner before the independent investigation panel on rights violations by the defunct SARS and other police units, Hassan Sani Musa, on Tuesday, narrated how police officers arrested and tortured his brother to death, adding that an Assistant Commissioner of Police gave the family N50,000 and a bag of rice.

This is even as he demanded the sum of N100 million from the police as compensation to the family for the alleged extrajudicial killing of his brother, Sailfullahi.

Hassan stated these while testifying in his petition before the panel set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), with the number 2020/IIP/ABJ/139, in which ASP Ismail of Aminu Kano police station; ASP Abba Adamu of Kano State Police Command; the Commissioner of Police, Kano State and the Inspector General of Police are respondents.

While narrating what led to the death of his brother, Sailfullahi, a 28-year-old resident of Kofar Mata, Kano, told the panel that on October 19, 2020, when the #EndSARS protest was ongoing, they were seated in front of their house in the Kano State capital as a result of the hot season when some policemen drove in and arrested the late Saifullah and took him to Shahuci Area Command, Kano.

“They arrested three persons. The speed at which they took my brother away left everyone confused and helpless. The following morning, we wanted to go and bail him but we learnt that he had died.

“They brought the corpse home but we insisted that we were not going to bury him since he was arrested hale and hearty. The corpse was returned to the police station from where it was taken to the Aminu Kano Specialist Hospital, Kano,” Hassan said.

According to him, both the Kano State government and the police tried to pacify the family over the loss of his brother, adding that an Assistant Commissioner of Police told them that the police officers responsible for the death would be dismissed.

“When the Assistant Commissioner of Police learnt about it, he came and offered the family N50,000 and a bag of rice.

“He pleaded with us that they will do everything possible to fish out those behind the killing, but we have written many times, yet nothing has been done.

“My father died because all these treatments affected his health condition and he couldn’t bear it anymore,” the petitioner told the panel

He then said that “we are asking for N100million compensation from the police.”

He, however, said that though the family initially refused to bury the deceased, he had since been buried though the police refused to tell them what crime the late Saifullah committed.

Hassan said he could not identify the policemen who arrested his brother, adding that the police neither told the family why his brother was arrested nor why they tortured him to death.

Also testifying, a petitioner witness, (PW1), Khalid Nuhu told the panel that he took his younger sister who was sick to the hospital when police drove in with the late Saifullah.

According to Nuhu, he recognised the deceased because they lived in the same neighbourhood, adding that the police started to beat the deceased to the extent that he vomited blood.

“They (policemen) prevented any doctors from attending to him and the following morning, we heard he was dead. It happened at about 1:30 am,” the PW1 said.

Another petitioner’s witness, Ladi Hamza, who told the panel that she was an elder sister to the mother of the deceased, said she heard an unusual sound that day and wanted to go to see what was happening but her younger brother told her not to go.

“But when I did, I was told that Saifullah was taken away by police. I followed their vehicle. Saifullah was lying down in the vehicle with two others and he was crying that I should help him.

“I went to met the policemen to enquire of what the matter was but they ignored me. They later took him to the hospital. They asked me to go home because our children were too stubborn.

“In the morning, the leader of the vigilante group asked if anyone was arrested and I said yes, but later we discovered that my nephew was dead. He was healthy when he was arrested.

“We later carried his corpse to the area command. That was what attracted the government. A representative from the Government House came and an Assistant Commissioner of Police brought a bag of rice and N50,000. The state government later employed the deceased senior brother,” she told the panel.

According to her, these were done for the family with a view to pacifying them since the #EndSARS protest was ongoing as of the time of the incident.

Meanwhile, the panel has adjourned the petition to March 7 for the respondents to open their defence. (Nigerian Tribune)