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AGONY OF A FATHER: HOW POLICE AREA COMMANDER KILLED MY SON, HELD HIS BODY FOR 12 YEARS

Mr. Taiwo Daniel, the father of a final-year Mechanical Engineering student of Osun State College of Technology at Esa-Oke, Babatunde Daniel, has told the panel of enquiry probing police brutality and extra-judicial killings that his son was killed and his body has not been released till date, The Nation Newspaper reports.

The distraught father appeared before the panel on Saturday, following the submission of his petition.

He said his son was in his last semester when he was killed by Police Area Commander at Ilesa, Osun State, identified as Mr. Joshua Atunise, who accused the student of robbery.

“On November 28, 2008, some students coming from an occasion were arrested at Ilo Ijesha, via Ilesha, by the police at a checkpoint. After they identified themselves, the police refused to let them go. To further prove their identities, they called my son, Babatunde, who was their leader and was not on the scene. When he showed up, he was arrested alongside other students.”

“The police officers told them to give them N30,000 before they could be released, but my son refused. The officers called the Area Commander, Mr. Atunise, that they had arrested some armed robbers terrorising the community. “The Area Commander took my son and one other student to the scene where he was arrested. The Area Commander kept on tagging my son an armed robber and his objection to the false accusation infuriated the officer.”

“Atunise shot him twice on his thigh and took him to the Commissioner of Police, Mr. John Morenike, in Osogbo. The commissioner told Atunise that my son should be given medical attention, but he took him to SARS cell in Oke-Baale, Osogbo. That was where my son bled to death on November 29, 2008.”

“Police arraigned my son’s colleagues but they were discharged by the court. We filed a suit against the police for killing my son and withholding his body.”

“On March 29, 2012, the court declared that the killing of my son was illegal and ordered the police to pay us N30 million and arrest the Area Commander for prosecution.”

“On May 28, 2012, a letter communicating the judgment of the court to the police was received by the police but nothing was done to in that respect,” Daniel said.

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