By Ibrahim Abdul’Aziz
Yola
Gerio fishing community in Yola North local government area of Adamawa state has petitioned the Adamawa police Zone 3 command over alleged arrest and torture of its people by policemen.
In a petition to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) in charge of zone 3 signed by 51 members of the community, it accused policemen from the Jambutu Police outpost in the area of carrying out the arrest and torture.
They claimed that the harassment by the police was over the piece of land they procured from the Adamawa Emirate in 1961.
“The crux of the issue was sometime in 1961, the present place we are occupying was sold to us by the ancestral land owners, and then certified by the late Lamido of Adamawa, Dr Aliyu Mustapha.
“We have been there carrying out our businesses, but to our greatest surprise, the men of the Nigeria Police have been terrorising us, arresting both the old, young and women and also beating us up and at the end they will collect N5, 000 each from us for bail.
“In light of this, we write to request for your kind intervention between the community and the members of Nigeria Police, Jambutu, as we don’t want to carry the law into our hands,” parts of the petition said.
When contacted, the new Public Relations Officer of Zone 3, Mr. Yusuf Adamu Mohammed, said he needed time to confirm receipt of the said petition by the zonal command before he would comment on it.
