The incident occurred during the weekend after the policemen, numbering about seven, invaded the house of deceased in search of a felon.
The remains of the deceased have since been deposited at the State Specialist Hospital, Akure, morgue for postmortem examination.
While, the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, CIID, of the Ondo State Police Command is currently probing the cause of the woman’s death, a source said that the woman was allegedly hit with a gun butt and beaten by two of the seven policemen who came to the house after an argument with her.
According to the source, the seven policemen, who came in a white police hilux van with registration Number NPF 4236 B, stormed the house at No. 1, Akinyemi Street, off Ijok Road, Akure, after searching a nearby bush for some boys believed to be smoking Indian hemp in the area. When the policemen could not find anybody in the bush, they came to Mrs. Adelugba’s house to see if the boys were hiding there.
It was also learnt that an argument ensued, with Mrs. Adelugba insisting that only her own children were in the three-bedroom house.
As she insisted that she would not let her children be arrested without any explanation or warrant, Mrs Adelugba was shoved, beaten and hit with a gun butt, and she slumped and died within two minutes.
Another source said that the policemen who came to the area were in the habit of raiding bars and ‘drinking joints’ in the area every weekend, to arrest young boys who would later be bailed with money ranging from N5,000 to N10, 000. They never charge them with any offence.
According him, when the woman sensed that similar thing was to be done to her children, she demanded to know what offence her childern had committed, but this angered the policemen and they pounced on her.
He said the policemen fled the scene after the residents of the area gathered around the scene. According to him, residents later carried the lifeless body of the woman to the Ala Police Station where the policemen came from.
One of the children of the deceased who simply identified himself as Henry told journalists that his mother had no history of illness and had never been to any hospital for treatment as she was popularly called ‘Iron Lady’ because of her strength and spirit of hard work.
When contacted, the police public relations officer in the state, Mr. Wale Ogodo, said the woman was not killed by policemen; that she only started panting and died after policemen had left the house.
0 comments:
Post a Comment