There is outrage in Ekiti State following the alleged brutalisation of a nursing mother, Mrs. Toyin Adeyeye, by policemen at a checkpoint over her alleged refusal to offer them bribe. Interest groups and human rights bodies are furious with the police and the demand a high-powered probe into the incident. ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA reports.
MRS. Toyin Adeyeye never bargained for what he experienced on Friday, March 17 just ten days after she arrived from the United States of America where she was delivered of her baby.
After being successfully delivered of the baby, she was looking forward to returning home to nurse the baby and look after the business she left behind for about six months she stayed abroad.
On that fateful day (March 17), she went to the market with her brother, Adeniyi Dada, on the wheels with the new born baby, Heritage. Little did they know that they would pass the night inside a dingy cell in a police station away from the comfort of their home.
Not only did they sleep in detention on that day, they allegedly received the beatings of their lives from those who are supposed to protect them from criminals and were feasted upon by ‘appreciative’ mosquitoes.
They were accosted by a team of policemen who mounted a checkpoint in front of Ekiti Parapo Square otherwise known as the Pavilion, and demanded for vehicle documents as well as driver’s licence which were promptly supplied and were found to be valid.
Interestingly, the incident happened few meters away from the official residence of the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abdullahi Chafe.
The police impounded the black Kia Picanto car with registration number LAGOS FKJ 221 EE with which they were coming from the market.
The woman was breastfeeding her baby last Saturday morning when our reporter visited the police station on a fact-finding mission.
The woman’s husband, Mr. Akanni Adeyeye, decried the alleged brutality meted out to his wife with lacerations on her body and bruises on the face.
