By Ameh Ejekwonyilo
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violations by the defunct special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other units of the Nigerian police has ordered the police to produce the Commander of Inspector General of Police (IGP) Intelligence Response Team (IRT), DCP Abba Kyari and Inspector Vincent Makinde, before the panel in a case of alleged arbitrary arrest, detention, cruel inhuman and degrading treatment against Mr. Rapheal Tersoo and Moses Mfe.
In his submission, counsel to the victims, Mr. Mike Usahfa, narrated how his clients Messrs Raphel Tersoo and Moses Mfe were subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment by the police since 2019.
Mr. Usahfa told the panel that his clients were arrested on the 22nd of November 2019 in new GRA Makurdi Benue state and that after spending a week at the Makurdi zonal command headquarters of the Nigeria police, they were transferred to Abuja and have since been in detention.
Utasha said since the arrest of his clients, they had not been arraigned before any court of law and that all attempts to secure their bail were rebuffed by Inspector Makinde who insisted that the sum of N1 million must be paid before they could get bail.
As for Moses Mfe, Mr. Utasha said that his whereabouts remained unknown, but that he was reliably informed that he was shot in the course of his arrest and sustained injuries, adding that he had not been allowed to access any form of medical care, as he fears that he may have been extra-judicially killed.
Utasha further prayed the panel to make an order releasing them conditionally or unconditionally in the interest of justice. His second prayer before the panel is that the police should be compelled to produce Mr. Moses Mfe.
After listening to the submissions, the Chairman of the panel, Justice Sulieman Galadima, ordered the head of the police legal team at the panel, DCP James Idachaba to ensure that the commander IGP-IRT DCP Abba Kyari and Investigating Police Officer (IPO) Inspector Vincent Makinde appear before the panel to make public presentation of everything that transpired in the course of arrest, investigation and how the victims were subsequently remanded at the Suleja correctional services.
