Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network (CRRAN); has written a petition to Chairman of Police Service Commission (PSC), asking for thorough investigation and payment of N50,000,000 compensation for unlawful detention of a 16 years old boy by the Police Headquarters, Enugu State.
The petition entitled: “APPEAL FOR JUSTICE, THOROUGH INVESTIGATION AND PAYMENT OF PROMPT AND ADEQUATE COMPENSATION for TORTURE, UNLAWFUL DETENTION OF 16 YEAR OLD AT THE ENUGU STATE POLICE HEADQUARTERS ENUGU FOR 3, MONTHS; A CLEAR VIOLATION OF THE CHILD RIGHTS ACT 2003,” was made available to Ikengaonline in Enugu.
The petition reads: “We write to you in respect of the above-mentioned matter on behalf of Mr and Mrs Eze whose 16 year old son Arinze Eze an SS2 student in one of the secondary schools in the state, was unlawfully detained for over 3 months at the Police Headquarters Enugu from the 9th October 2023 to 12th January 2024, over a phantom case of rape.
“The 16 year old was released after our intervention and serious media advocacy by the media.
“The beautiful aspect of the boys’ case is that the office of the Hon. Attorney General of Enugu State which had earlier requested from the Police the case file of the boys’ case sometimes in December 2023, after a thorough study of the case file found nothing against the boy and the Honourable Attorney General directed the immediate discharge of the teenager.”
According to the group: “The boys father, Mr Eze said he received a phone call from the State Ministry of Justice on the 16th January 2024, and was informed of the decision of the Honourable Attorney General.
“It becomes worrisome that an innocent child who did nothing was tortured and brutalised while in detention for three months,” the group said.
The petition signed by Mr Olu Omotayo, Esq, added that since the release of the child from detention the parents have been taking him to hospital because of the deteriorating condition of his health.
He stated that the teenager, who was looking pale narrated how he was tortured while in detention by a policeman named Ifeanyi who used police baton to beat him all over his body joints in order to make him confess to what he did not do.
“The little Eze said his torture was supervised by the Officer in Charge (OC) D18, State CID Enugu,” he said.
Omotayo said that the torture and Unlawful detention of “this child who committed no offence, for over three months at the Police Headquarters Enugu, is a grave assault on the UN Convention on the Rights of the child (UNCRC) and the Child Rights Act 2003, which is a National law.
According to him, Nigeria should move along with comity of decent nations of the world and this type of barbarity should never be allowed in this country under any guise whatsoever.
