Trouble is brewing in Benin city following what some residents described as harassment by policemen. The people of the city revealed that they will embark on a protest if the police do not stop treating them as criminals.
Our correspondent who visited the town recently noticed that the clamp down on suspected cultists in the state since May 2015 has left more to be desired as youth are complaining bitterly.
READ ALSO: CULTISM: Osun Monarch Accuses Police, Vigilante Groups
Following the complaints, our correspondent visited police checkpoints in the metropolis and observed that policemen after their usual stop and search operation, end up confiscating mobile phones and other electronic devices.
A young man Efosa Eromosele lamented that he and his friends have fallen victims to police harassment and urged the commissioner of police to call his men to order.
He said: “I am fed up with police intimidation. They do not want to see any young man driving a car. The other day, they arrested me and hand-cuff my hands. They took me to my house and started ransacking my room. It was a big embarrassment because my neighbours taught I was a criminal.”
“My parents were shocked. They felt I had joined cult gang the way the policemen were searching my body for tatoos and marks.
“The police ended up confiscating my phones after they did not find anything in my home. I asked for my phones but they refused to give them back. They said they want to find out if I am a ‘yahoo boy’.
“I have decided not to buy any big phone. This is like the fourth time this year I have been treated this way. It his horrible and the CP should call his men to order”.
A father of four Stanley Nosa also blasted the police high handedness. The policemen arrested my nephew on his way to my house. They searched his phone and they lied that they found a 419 message.
“They boy denied the allegation but felt insulted and took him away to SARS office. What we discovered is that the policemen will seize phones and they will type indicting messages and send such messages out just to implicate young people.
“At the end they will tell their parents to bring money to bail their children. I went to bail my nephew and after I refused to part with the bail money, the IPO seized my phone and he has refused to return it. I have decided to petition the CP over their conduct,” he said.
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It would be recalled that following deadly cult related killings in the state earlier in the year, the Inspector General of Police Solomon Arase sent a special crack squad to the state to arrest suspected cultists. Following the crackdown, more than 200 suspected cultists have been arrested and charged to court.
The post Cultism: Benin Residents Decry Police Harassment appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read on NAIJ.COM.
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