The Inspector General of police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris has been petitioned over a domestic cook at Gombe state governor’s private residence in Kaduna, who was allegedly tortured to death by men of Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) for allegedly stealing four TV sets.
In the petition, made available to Blueprint, Mr. Sunny Olorunmola, lawyer to the late cook, urged the IGP to take immediate action over the “gruesome torture and murder of John Okon on 13th November, as a result of alleged multiple beatings and torture inflicted on him, while in the custody of men of the Nigerian Police (SARS) headed by one SP Jummai of Anti-Crime Department, Gabasawa, Kaduna”.
He said, John Okon, 32, a cook attached to the private residence of Gombe state Governor, Ibrahim Dankwanbo in Kaduna, lived with his wife, Joy Okon at the boys quarters of the residence located at Pola Road, off Swimming Pool Road, Kaduna, until Thursday November 8th, 2018 when he was arrested by SARS with the two police and two private guards in the house for being responsible for theft of four TV sets.
The lawyer added that John was tortured for six days without food and access to his lawyer, who were at the police headquarters but were denied access to him by the investigation police officer, and without being charged to court until he died on Tuesday, November 13th, 2018. His pregnant wife, who was briefly arrested on Friday was forced into labour on Tuesday following the trauma.
According to the lawyer, neither the Kaduna Police Commissioner nor the Gombe state governor deemed it fit to inform the family of Okon’s death until November 15th when SP Jummai broke the sad news to his wife, who just had forced labour, on phone.
The lawyer solicited “swift intervention, investigation and prosecution of all culprits”. He also wants IGP Ibrahim Idris “to condemn this gruesome and barbaric act of murder by your men, to arrest, prosecute and bring them to book to face the wrath of the law”.
