TEAM OF LAWYERS THREATENS NIGERIA SECURITY CORPS WITH COURT ACTION OVER BATTERING,UNLAWFUL DETENTION OF SURVEYOR
A team of legal practitioners have threatened to drag Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps,NSCDC,Ogun State Command to court over alleged battery and unlawful detention of a surveyor.
The lawyers led by Habeeb Whyte of Harmony Chambers,Abeokuta had in a petition fingered Sobayo Onajole,an officer of the corps has the arrowhead of the alleged 8-man torturers of Taiwo Faleti,the surveyor.
The petition titled,’Notice of Intimidation,threat to life,assault,battery,torturing and unlawful detention of Surveyor Taiwo Faleti’,was copied;Commandant Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps,Public Complaint Bureau, Commissioner of Police and Director of Security Services.
The solicitors said,their client was picked up in his home on July 8 by Sobayo Onajole, who is neigbour and handcuffed him for allegedly having a minor matrimonial issue,which was regarded as having nothing to do with the corps official
Whyte further in the petition said the corps official thereafter beat up Taiwo mercilessly after audaciouslly confessing that,he has been having secret affairs with his(victim) wife.
The petititioner said,thereafter,the civil defence officer took the victim in handcuff to detention within the premises of civil defence headquarters in Abeokuta, where he was subjected to another round of torture by eight other members of the agency.
‘Our client was thereafter taken to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Headquarters,Oke-Mosan,Abeokuta wherein eight other officers which our client can viviidly identify ganged beat him mercilessly and hung him on the tree for more than five hours(at about 10.00am-3.00pm),with handcuff’,the petition reads.
‘Our client was furthermore electrocuted with Taser which was also applied on his private part as he was stripped naked by the officers whom were acting on the directive of Mr Sobayo Onajole. As this was going on,Mr Sobayo Onajole told our client that he was having secret affair with our client’s wife and that he do have sexual intercourse at his pleasure with his wife always’
The lawyers said further that, Onajole boasted that he was under the order of the Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps,Ogun State Command to do and undo.
The petition which contained photographs of the victim’s battered and brutalized body,said he was forced to write statement under duress before he was released following intervention of Deputy Surveyor-General of Ogun State and High Provost of Cathedral Church of Saint Peters,Ake,Abeokuta.
‘Our client was released and was immediately rushed to Mercy Hospital at Panseke,Abeokuta. As at the time he was being rushed to the hospital,our client was in coma and in a terrible condition as blood was gushing out of various part of his body. Our client was admitted for six days at the hospital’,Whyte wrote.
The legal practitioners said,consequent on the above,’we contend that our client has been cheated,intimidated,assaulted,harassed,tortured by officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Ogun State Command led by Mr Sobayo Onajole and as such,the culprits must be dealt with accordingly’
‘We therefore implore you to use your good office to investigate this matter and ensure that necessary steps are taken for justice not only to be done,but also to be manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to have been done. Our client must be duly compensated for all the hardship caused on him from the day of the incident till this period’
‘Our client hereby demand for a sum of N50,000,000,00(Fifty Million Naira only) as general and specific damages for the economic,survival and untold hardship that this has caused him. His means of survival,health and inhuman treatment was delibrately melted on him by security officers in a bid to show how powerful they were. This hardship must be adequately catered’, the petition emphasised.
Meanwhile, as at the time of filing this report, the petition had been received by the authorities of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Ogun State Police Command and Directorate of Security Services as contained in the receipt documents of the solicitors.
