Family Demand Justice For A Minor Impregnated By SARS Officer In Lagos

The family of  16 year old girl Elizabeth (not real name) has petitioned the Inspector General of police IGP Ibrahim Idris over allegation that a policeman identified as officer Henry attached to the Ojo Division Lagos state police command abducted , raped, tortured and impregnated their daughter.

Elizabeth according to her family has since given birth to a five months old child for the said officer Henry but she was forced to relocate from Lagos state to her village in Anambra state over police harassment since then by Lagos state SARS officers.

Narrating how Elizabeth was allegedly abducted,raped,tortured and impregnated , Chukwudumaga Obadike elder sister of the victim said.

” On May 8th 2017,I discovered that my 16 years old younger sister(Elizabeth) was missing.

Later on that evening,we reported her missing at the Ajangbadi police station in Lagos.

However ,two months after,to our surprise, on July 10th, I was arrested by police men from Ojo Division, that my sister,whom I had declared missing was wanted at the station for allegedly stealing N1.5million from one of their officers identified as officer Henry. I told them that we were looking for her and had declared her missing.

The policemen went to Ajangbadi police station with me to ascertain if truly I reported her missing.They wanted to lock me up but I refused. They later released me by 11pm and the policemen told us to report at the station the next day.

When Ada, my sister and I went to the Ojo police station the next day, the policemen took us to the Special Anti- robbery Squad SARS office at Lagos state police command Ikeja. We were detained at SARS IKeja and we were asked to pay N10,000 bail each but we ended up giving them N5000.

They released us and told us to go and look for our missing sister and bring her to SARS Ikeja”

Continuing Chukwudumaga said ” days after, we learnt my sister (Elizabeth) was in our village in the East. We brought her back to Lagos. She then narrated to us that all the while she was missing, she was in officer Henry’s house under duress. She said officer Henry met her on her way home the day she went missing and he abducted, took her to an hotel where he raped her . She said Officer Henry abducted her and kept her in his house and his wife was using her as a maid and officer Henry would rape her anytime his wife was not at home.

She said she escaped from his house to the village. We noticed she was pregnant and she confessed to us that Officer Henry was responsible for her pregnancy.She confessed to us that she did not steal N1.5million from Officer Henry’s house that it was a frame up. We took her to SARS in Lagos because the policemen ordered us to bring her. To our surprise, the policemen in SARS detained her in their cell for one week with the help of officer Henry’s brother who is also a police officer at SARS,  policemen did not give her food. They forced her to confess to stealing officer Henry’s N1.5million”.

Security Monitor learnt that  following Elizabeth’s ordeal in SARS Ikeja, her family wrote an appeal letter to the Crime Victims Foundation to help with her release.

Barr. Glory Egbuji, the Executive Director of  Crime Victims Foundation said following her intervention, the Officer in charge of SARS ,CSP Mohammed Sanusi ordered the release of Elizabeth.

She said ” She ( Elizabeth) was in SARS custody and I personally went to see the OC SARS before she was released to me.

According to her, she petitioned the commissioner of Police, the AIG Zone 2 Command , NAPTIP and the IGP over this matter but nothing has come out of it. This matter has been on since last year. The girl is underage, she said the policeman abducted her on her way to her sister’s house where she lived.

 He took her to a hotel and raped her. The same policeman took her to his house without the  knowledge of her family and handed her over to his wife and whenever his wife was not around, he used her as sex slave. When she had the opportunity, she ran away to her village. She was arrested  by SARS through tracking and was locked up in SARS over allegation she stole N1. 5million from the policeman despite the fact that she is underage and pregnant. She has since given birth and there is no help for her and the child”

Elizabeth family said they are under pressure to drop the case.

Her elder brother Obadike said ” Officer Henry has dropped the case of theft against her because it is all a lie. He told us to let go. He said he wants to settle amicably. He agreed to pay some money to my sister but he has not done anything for her and the baby”.

When contacted over allegation of detaining and torturing a minor, the Officer in Charge of SARS Ikeja  CSP Mohammed Sanusi denied the allegation. He said ” I do not allow under age persons to be detained in SARS cell under my watch. Maybe they were doing that before I came but since I came here, no under age person has been detained”.

Also when contacted over allegation that the policemen attached to the command detain and torture underage persons in SARS ,the Lagos state police spokesperson SP Chike Otti said ” I don’t know what you are talking about”.