In compliance with the order by my Oga, Gbemiga Ogunleye, I must now tell the story of my 1984 saga at Ubiaja police station, in then Bendel State, now Edo State.
Some Facebook friends apparently misunderstood the import of my telling the story of the “arrest in lieu” of an old woman at the same station, four decades ago. I was only saying the police have been doing it for a long time, but that is not to say it is legal or proper; not at all. In fact, it is outrageous and, as all the SANs said, should be ended immediately.
Several friends also veered into the side issue of how my own detention saga at the same station ended. As I said, the three of us, Yusuf Maikanti Yunusa, a lawyer; Tukur Umar Mohammed, a civil servant and I were arrested at a police checkpoint and taken to the station on suspicion of car theft, because of a broken number plate. At the station, the policemen who brought us handed us over to the CID officer, who interrogated us, then locked us up. I told him the car was not mine; the car’s papers showed it belonged to Ibrahim Mohammed Jega. I explained that he is my elder brother. I supplied his house address in Sokoto and his phone number, and urged the CID officer to call him and ask if his car was stolen. The officer said no, he cannot call him. That we will first be taken to Benin; that it is the State CID headquarters that can call Sokoto. The date was Saturday, September 29, 1984. Monday, October 1, was a public holiday. He said we will be detained until Tuesday, October 2, and then taken to Benin.
We sat there behind bars for several hours. At around 3 pm, a police Corporal, a Hausa man, came and quietly asked me to explain what happened. Maybe it was ethnic solidarity because he told me he is a native of Funtua. I explained everything to him, and he left without saying anything.
Around 5 pm, a bulky police Inspector, a Yoruba man, resumed duty. The Corporal apparently briefed him, and the Inspector had us brought before him for “investigation.” When he heard our explanation and, having examined the vehicle papers, he declared that it was not a case of car theft but a traffic offence. He therefore ordered that we be transferred from CID to MTD [Motor Traffic Division]. Being a traffic offence, only the driver was liable, so I remained behind bars while my two friends were let out. The Inspector said he could have released us, but that the policemen who arrested us at the checkpoint could complain, so we should await the coming of the DPO [Divisional Police Officer] to review the case.
The DPO did not come that night. At around 11 pm, the policemen said they will detain the car, but the three of us could go into town and return in the morning. We told them it was safer for us to remain at the police station, since Ubiaja was a village and may not even have a standard hotel. The policemen were very helpful; the police station had a newly built cell which they had not even started using. They brought old mattresses, spread them inside and told us to sleep there. Very kind of them!
The DPO drove into the station at 7am the following morning in a private Peugeot 505. He did not alight from the car; he said he was going to Benin, and asked if there were any detainees. He was told that there were some traffic offenders. We were brought before him; he asked for our identities, and when we showed him our ID cards, he smiled and said, “So you are coming all the way from Sokoto to Onitsha to see your girlfriends!” [I cannot recall if he was right; my memory has failed me in that regard].
He ordered our release, but said we should not leave the town until we amend the number plate. We gratefully drove out of the station. Unsure where we could find a painter to write another number plate, we decided to hit the highway again with the broken number plate and make it to Onitsha, where we will amend the plate number. We drove into Onitsha and at Epiwek, we were arrested again, this time by a traffic warden.
