Woman Accuses Police Officers From Sapele Area Command Of Assault, Harassment, Violation Of Human Rights Over Disputed Land

Mrs Martha Yaye Onokpasa has accused men of the Nigeria Police Force from Sapele Area Command in Delta State of violating her right and that of her family members over a disputed land.

Onokpasa, who gave a detailed accounts of the events that led to the incident, said that the police had accused her and her brother of harassing one Mrs Marian Eke Shaibu, who was said to have written a petition “against one Kingsley and his gang that they broke her blocks.”

The distraught Onokpasa recalled that very early in the morning on the 22nd day of July, they were still on bed when they heard loud noise of people forcefully breaking the doors to get into the house.

“Some at the frontage and some at the backyard, noise everywhere and threatening, telling us to open the door, we were so afraid, thinking they were armed robbers or kidnappers.

“They successfully broke the back door and gained entrance, we saw that they were hefty policemen armed with guns and sticks.

“They claimed they are police from area command, that there is a petition written against one Kingsley and his gang.

“While I was being interrogated by one, my children and my younger brother were being molested and being beaten with sticks.

“They assaulted my daughter and tore her clothes and my 12-year-old son was beaten with a stick,” she said.

She said further that her children and brother were all frightened by the alleged terror unleashed on them by the Sapele Area Command of the Nigeria Police Force.

Onokpasa said that she told the police that it would have been better that they introduce themselves as police officers “instead of spoiling our properties, breaking our doors and molesting my family, mostly my young children.”

“So, I pleaded with them to allow me dress properly because I was still on my nightwear and I followed them.

“As I came out after dressing up properly, my brothers were handcuffed and beaten with heavy sticks.

“They put us inside the car and drove us to Area Command in Sapele.

“On getting there, they said one Mrs Marian Eke Shaibu wrote a petition against one Kingsley and his gang that they broke her blocks. This woman happens to be our tenant and neighbour.

“On the 18th day of July, we were taking a walk in my late mother’s land in respect of which a case is already in court with Amua-Idiemo Community and the court has issued an injunction over the land,” she said .

She stated that the case was also reported to the Police at Zone 5 Headquarters, Benin City due to the Amua-Idiemo people that encroached on the land, who she said fought them, broke their beacons, injured them and threatened their lives, a matter she said is presently under investigation by the police at Zone 5.

“I met this Mrs Marian Eke Shaibu with some group of moulders working on the land.

“I greeted her and asked her, who gave her work to do on the land, she said that it’s her land.

“I replied her telling her that the land is a disputed land already in court both injunction and restriction has been put on the land that no agent or worker should be seen on the land.

“She should also confirm from the Amua-diemo community people that sold the land to her.

“Then I called my lawyer immediately and reported what is happening in the disputed land.

“He said on the next adjourned date in court we will have to report it to the court but that I should also snap and video what was going on on the land as an exhibit in court which we did and left, only for the Sapele Area Command to invade our family house and most brutally and unprofessionally take us into custody without warrant,” she said.

Onokpasa alleged that they were only released that after coughing out N260,000 (two hundred and sixty thousand naira).

While saying that she is not a criminal and neither herself nor her family broke any law, Onokpasa said that they have been “most heinously harassed by the police that is supposed to be our friend.”

“I am convinced that with a President like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, renewed hope has indeed come to Nigeria and it is a complete disgrace for any police formation to be conducting itself in this most illegal manner. I demand justice,” she stated.