Another detention camp in Ibadan - 90 inmates released

By Adebayo Waheed - 24.02.2008

NO fewer than 90 inmates were released from another illegal detention camp by the Oyo State Police Command in Ojoo area of the state capital.

The State Commissioner of Police, Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Udom Ekpoudom while briefing journalists in Ibadan on Saturday said 11 suspects have been arrested in connection with the illegal detention camp.

He said men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and command’s Monitoring Unit stormed the camp and released the inmates.

According to him, experience at the camp was unbelievable and the treatment given to the “captives was dehumanising.

Six of the hostages who were female, the police boss said complained that they were subjected to series of sexual acts against their wishes.

“It was also discovered that illegal abortions were carried out on the pregnant inmates in the camp.

“It was a situation where human beings were shrunk to skeletal frame with severe burns and rashes,” he said.

It was learnt that the captives whose ages range from 10-60 years were administered concoctions made from water with which dead inmates were washed.

Nigerian Tribune investigations revealed that grievous inhuman treatment and torture usually resulted in multiple deaths of the inmates who were subsequently buried without any report to the police.

Some of the inmates who spoke with journalists confirmed that though they were taken to the camp by their parents, they confessed that bodies of deceased inmates were usually eaten by their captors.

They further claimed that their parents were not aware of the inhuman treatment being meted to them by their captors.

Some of their parents also denied the knowledge of what transpired at the camp.

According to them, whenever they visited the camp, one of the captors would be available so that their children would not disclose to them (the parents) what they went through at the camp.

The suspects arrested for operating the illegal detention camp were Muhammed Olore, Dauda Atanda, Muhammed Adeyemi, Yusuf Owolabi, Sherif Salam and Ismail Balogun.

Others were Lukman Olalekan, Alfa Taye Ogunlofin and Adeola Adeniyi.

Items recovered from them were Previa vehicle, one Toyota Camry, Volvo 744, the sum of N32,095, three spades, two hoes, one digger, some spiritual soap, herbs, plastic container with some reddish water drained from washing of dead bodies.