My brother’s injuries showed police tortured him to death– Sibling of man who died in Kwara cell

Ismail Jimoh, elder brother of late Abdulqadir Jimoh, the 35-year-old poultry farmer who died in Kwara State Police Command cell, speaks to TUNDE OYEKOLA about the circumstances that led to his brother’s arrest by the Kwara State Police Command and his death

What is your relationship with Jimoh Abdulqadir who allegedly died in a police cell?

I am Jimoh Abdulquadir’s elder brother. My name is Ismail Jimoh. My other siblings are Jimoh Alabi and Mrs Roshidat Bale, who is a sister to the deceased. As I said earlier, I am the late Abdulqadir’s elder brother, and he (the deceased) was the third born after me.

What was the occupation of the late Abdulqadir?

He was a businessman who was into buying and selling animals, and it was due to his entrepreneurial skills that he secured employment at Olam Poultry Farm in Offa, Kwara State. The firm is into the production of dressed chickens.

My late brother was living in Offa but came to Ilorin occasionally. The last time he came was for the Nikkah celebration of his younger sister, Rukayat. The event was held in the penultimate week before his death.

He should have gone back to Offa but told me he was looking for money to pay a debt he owed someone in his place of work. He gave the name of the person who was one of his superiors in office as Peter Gabriel.

What led to his arrest by the police?

On Thursday last week (December 19, 2024), he came to me that he needed the sum of N350,000 to pay a debt that he owed one of his co-workers in the office. I told him that I didn’t have such an amount of money. He also told my mother and other people about his problem.

On Friday, my mother, Alhaja, gave him the sum of N75,000 to help her buy dressed chicken which she wanted to sell, while one of our sisters also gave him N350,000 which was from the contribution (ajo in Yoruba) which she had just collected, making a total of N425,000 with him.

Later that day, a boy named Jelili Kehinde, who was living with him in Offa, called and told him that he wanted to deliver a message to him. Jelili told him to come and collect the message (parcel). When he got there, he saw Jelili, an okada rider, and another man, who happened to be the policeman who came to arrest him.

Abdulqudir was taken to the Criminal Investigation Department office at the state police headquarters in Ilorin. It was in the evening around 5.30pm that he was allowed to inform us about his arrest. My mother, Alhaja, then went to the police headquarters together with one of her friends to demand his bail.

What happened when your mother got to the place?

My mother told the officer that there was enough money with Abdulqadir to pay the N220,000 debt and also settle the bail money, but the police officer told her that Abdulqadir could not be released on bail until the complainant gave his assent that he should be granted bail.

She then left the police station. But at about 10pm that same day, the police called one of our sisters to come and secure his (Abdulqadir’s) bail. They continued the phone call at midnight around 2am till the early hours of Saturday.

On Saturday morning around 7am, six of us went to the police station but they did not allow us to go inside. We went back to our house but around 9am that Saturday, there was another phone call from the police that we should come again to the headquarters.

So, this time, they took us to an Assistant Commissioner of Police who said he was from Ilorin and told us that our brother hanged himself in the cell where he was kept at midnight using the shirt he was wearing. He pleaded with us to take the matter as an act of God. But before he took us to the cell, we noticed bloodstains on the floor of the office where he addressed us.

Do you have any doubt about what the assistant police commissioner told you?

We didn’t believe what the police officer said because we noticed blood stains on the floor. When he took us to the cell where he was said to have hanged himself, it was a small place; low and would not have contained my brother’s height. My brother was a tall person.

Abdulquadir was a tall man, and where they showed us that he hanged himself cannot contain him, but they said he knelt before hanging himself. So, we asked for his corpse, and they told us to follow them to the mortuary at the Kwara State General Hospital, Surulere, Ilorin, which we did.

What happened at the mortuary?

When we got to the mortuary, we noticed that there were wounds on his face and he was bleeding from the nose. We saw a big sore on his thigh which we pointed out to the police officer. We also observed a wound on his head which was still bleeding.

How did the police officer respond?

The police officer said that the big sore on my brother’s thigh was caused by the embalming of his body at the hospital. Of course, we did not believe the police officer’s response.

What happened thereafter?

They put the six of us in the police Hilux van and said they wanted to take us to our house in Erubu/Asunara area, but when they got to the Film House at Oja-Oba, they sensed that there might be trouble and that the youth in the area might protest the killing of Abdulqadir; they lied to us that there was no more fuel in the vehicle and the remaining fuel could not reach our house not to speak of taking them to their station at the police headquarters. We disembarked from the police vehicle, and they sped off immediately.

The youth had planned to protest Abdulqadir’s death at the police headquarters, but they were cautioned by the elders in the community. Even on Sunday, they wanted to protest when they learnt that the Inspector General of Police was coming but the elders, including the Balogun Fulani, prevailed on them not to protest.

The IG had come to commiserate with the family on the death of your brother in a police cell. What has happened after that?

We thank the IG for coming to commiserate with our family. Many important personalities have also come, but nothing has been done to conduct an autopsy test to know what was responsible for the death of Abdulqadir in the police cell between the evening of Friday and the early hours of Saturday. My mother asked for bail for him around 5.30pm on Friday which the police refused but at 2am on Saturday, they called us to come for his bail.

The IG came on Sunday and Monday, the police called us again to go to the general hospital for an autopsy test on the corpse. They said we should come with our doctor, lawyer, and members of the family to witness the autopsy test.

When we got there, they told us that they would move the corpse to the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital where the autopsy would be done. When we arrived, they said the autopsy would no longer be done that day and that we should go, but expect a call from them.

Why was the autopsy not done at UITH on Monday?

Although we went with our doctor and lawyer as well as our family members, we got information that the police representatives who wanted to conduct the autopsy were the same officers who were behind the killing of Abdulqadir.

So, we insisted that they should not be there because we suspected they would manipulate the results of the autopsy test. Since then, we have not seen them or got any information about when the postmortem could be done.

The IG assured your family that justice would be done in the case of your brother’s death. Don’t you have confidence in what the IG said?

Yes, he came and said that justice would be done in the case. He even repeated what he told the family when he visited Balogun Fulani in his palace but what has been happening after he (IG) left did not give us the assurance given by the IG that justice would be done on the death of our brother because what we saw on the body of Abdulqadir showed that some policemen connived to torture him to death.

Today is Wednesday (December 25, 2024), and we have not received information that they have invited the complainant. The police have yet to arrest the boy who masterminded his arrest and the officers who tortured him to death have not been arrested. The police have not even given us access to what they collected from him. So, we don’t know what the IG is doing about the matter.

What gave you the belief that the police tortured him to death?

Well, when we saw his corpse and examined it critically, the scar on his thigh, which appeared as if a surgical operation was performed on his body, the wounds on his face, which was still bleeding, as well as the big wound on his head which was also still bleeding in the hospital revealed that he was subjected to serious torture in the police cell. Up till now, the police have yet to let members of the family have access to all the materials that he took to the police station which they seized from him.

What are the items the police took from him?

The materials taken which are still in the possession of the police are the two telephone sets, the ATM cards which they took from him, and the total sum of N425,000 comprising N75,000 given to him by my mother and the N350,000 given to him by one of our brothers. The money which he took to the police station is in the possession of the police till now.

How do you want the autopsy to be done to get the results accepted by your family?

We are suggesting that the autopsy should be carried out on neutral ground in a federal government teaching hospital, even outside Kwara State other than the University of Ilorin, and in the presence of police officers who are neutral in the case.

It may be the commissioner or deputy commissioner of police, but we will not accept a situation where the same police officers who supervised the torture of our brother to death are the same persons who will be present and control those who would conduct the autopsy test.

What is the demand of the family now?

All that we want is justice. We want those who connived to kill Abdulqadir to be brought to justice. We want those who have a hand in his death to be brought to justice, and it should be done on time so that frustration would not set in because as of now, we are still begging the youth not to cause trouble. That is the only thing we want the government to do for us.