I was tortured, extorted under supervision of DCP Abba Kyari, businessman tells panel

Afeez Mojeed, a businessman, says some police officers, under the supervision of Abba Kyari, a deputy commissioner of police (DCP), allegedly tortured him and forced him to reveal the password to his ATM card through which N450,000 was withdrawn from his bank account.

Mojeed, while appearing before the Lagos state judicial panel set up to probe police brutality on Saturday, narrated how he was arrested by four gun-wielding policeman from the now disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), who broke into his house on the night of October 18, 2014, forcefully collected some valuables and took him to the SARS office in Ikeja, where he was tortured and detained for 14 days – from October 18 to October 31, 2014.

The petitioner, while crying, told the panel that his torture and extortion by the SARS officer was “under the supervision of DCP Abba Kyari” who was the officer in charge of the now disbanded SARS in Lagos as of 2014 when he was arrested.

TheCable had reported Mojeed’s petition wherein he accused Kyari of supervising his torture and extortion, including forcing him to sign three Zenith bank cheques in the sum of N150,000 each making N450,000.

“The police under the supervision and threat of Abba Kyari (OC SARS) forced him to sign three Zenith Bank cheques in the sum of N150,000 each making N450,000 in total on October 22 – 23, 2014 and gave the sum to one Alabi Olawale Nurudeen who is also one of their cronies to withdraw,” Mojeed had said in his petition.

Narrating his ordeal before the panel on Friday, the Lagos-based businessman said he was watching television with his two-year-old child and mother-in-law, when the four SARS operatives robed in casual clothes with guns arrived at his apartment and broke his door to gain access on October 18 2014 around 9:00 pm.

He said after the SARS operatives forcibly gained access to his apartment, he was chained and handcuffed, while the operatives were pulling off his wedding ring, Tissot wristwatch and ransacking all aspects of his house.

“I was in my apartment around 8 to 9 pm with my two-year-old child, my mother-in-law, watching TV in the sitting room. My wife was in the kitchen cooking, five months pregnant. I heard a big bang on my door with a voice shouting open this door or I bring down the door, I was afraid as if it was armed robber before I could summon courage to get to the door, they pulled down my door,” he said.

“They chained my leg on the floor then and they handcuffed my both hands behind me, in the process of doing that, one of the men pulled my wedding ring from my finger and collected my Tissot wristwatch, they collected my wife wedding rings with several slaps and ordered her to bring polythene bag.

“They went to my room, approached my cupboard and they took the sum of N280,000 and ransack all aspect of my house.”

Mojeed said the SARS operatives took documents like his Zenith current account chequebook, four documents of landed properties, two shop documents, ID card, car documents, and a car key to Honda Accord model 2008 with the sum of N50,000 which was inside the car that was taken by the men.

He said he was later taken to the Ikeja police command around 11:00 pm that day — after they had pushed his mother-in-law with his child inside a gutter.

Mojeed said: “The document they collected from me I will not be able to list them, it is inside the petition. They collected Zenith bank current account chequebooks, my ATM cards they collected four landed documents, two shop documents, my car document and key to 2008 Honda Accord.

“During the process, they matched me down to the ground and collected the sum of N50, 000 from my car, when they stood me down my son and mother-in-law started shouting for what happened, in the process they pushed her into the gutter with my son behind her.

“They drove the car off, my wife was asking where they are taking me with to. The allegation that was placed on me as of then was that my car was a stolen vehicle. They came in mufti. They pulled me inside their van. We got to Ikeja command around 11:00pm, when we got there, I told them I have all the documents; they called me all sort of names and beat me till around 2:00 am that day.”

The petitioner claimed that the SARS operatives, the next day, asked for the password to his personal account, which he initially concealed, and when they were not able to “cash out”, they tortured him.

“I gave them the password to my personal phone, which I received all my financial messages,” he said.

“They said I should tell them the password of my ATM card of my current account. I gave them the wrong pin, they came back and did not cash out, I was then beaten mercilessly.”

Explaining another reason given by the police for his arrest, he said: “They presented a man to me named Edward Obinna that I defrauded him of N97 million, he said he paid through my company account. I said that is very good that I will print out my account statement and you will see where you paid me.

“He later changed it that it was my cousin he paid the sum of N97 million; that he paid Yusuf Olatunji Balogun who is my cousin the sum of N97 million to procure some earth-moving equipment and he has been working with Olatunji Balogun for the past two years and that Olatunji Balogun paid the money to my account.”

The petitioner explained that his cousin Balogun usually pays him money to buy properties on his behalf, adding that he did not know Edward Obinna prior to the the encounter, and that Obinna even admitted not knowing him.

He said: “The so called Mr. Obinna, I have never seen you or have any business with you in my life, he admitted that he does not know me and he has not done any business dealing with me. That same day at night when Mr Obi has left they took me to private cell and they started torturing me, tied and hung me with a rod and beat me with a machete, all because of the wrong pin I gave to them, I was screaming, when they released me I gave them the pin to my Zenith ATM.”

Explaining the alleged role of Kyari, he said, “On October 22, under the supervision of Abba Kyari, in their custody, I signed a cheque from my personal account to a faceless person named Nurudeen Alabi, N150,000, twice.

“On the same day, I was brought to Ajah, Ikota at Ecobank, there was this money I fixed with Ecobank, they brought me to unfix it and transfer the money to them, the total amount of that money is N15 million, the account officer was suspicious he did not accept the application, he said my investment is not yet ripe.

“They again took me to Ajah at Diamond bank to my corporate account, they said I should transfer the sum of 41 million to Edward Obinna, due to the process of terminating the account, they asked me to come, the next day.

“Getting to Ikeja command, they said I played prank on them. I beat and tied my arm and leg, they took iron and hung me; I was there for 30 minutes, I could not see anything. I was just hearing words like, ‘put in on the ground and pour water’. When I regained myself they took me to the cell, around 2:00am.”

Narrating further while crying, he said: “The following day on October 23 they brought me out with some men and took me to Ajah, Diamond bank, before getting to the bank, they branched a boutique and bought me a new clothes and cleaned me up and wore me the clothes they bought.

“Mr Edward Obinna was behind us in his own car, following us I was being led inside the bank with two officers who sat like customers and they told me to take transfer form and transfer N41 million to Mr Obinna, I did the transfer of N41 million to the account of Mr Obinna, he sat down there till he received the message of the alert.

“They took me to Ikeja; they took me back to the cell, that day again they started torturing me that there is still more, they tortured me and said I should write a note and sign on it. That I transferred the 41 million from my current account diamond bank to Mr Obinna.”

After the petitioner has testified, Kabir Akingbolu asked for adjournment to enable him to present documents to the panel.

Hearing of the case was adjourned till January 19, 2021.