Police Brutality.Mix reactions trail arrest and detention of man accused and paraded by the Benue state Police command for kidnap and murder.

The Benue command of the Nigerian Police Force few days ago paraded young  men in Makurdi for kidnapp .....The police paraded them for several criminal activities and kept them in detention , but a section of the state have described the allegations as false....Kindly read the police statement below.

The police in Benue state have arrested some notorious gangs who specilizes in Kidnapping and armed robbery believed to be terrorizing residents in Benue state. The leader of the gang, one Magudu Harris,36,who studied Industrial Physics at the pretigeous University of Agriculture Makurdi has made some confession of their crimes. Below is police reports as shared by DSP Moses Joel Yamu

Police Public Relations Officer PPRO

Benue State Command.

PARADE OF NOTORIOUS KIDNAP SUSPECTS

SUSPECTS:

i. Magudu Harris 36yrs Gang Leader

ii. Anyam Terhemen 34yrs Gang Member Owner and Driver of Golf Car used for Kidnapping

iii. Paul Keghuur 27yrs Gang Member

EXHIBIT:

i. Golf III Car with reg no. Lagos CY SMK

On 26/09/2018, operatives of the IGP Monitoring Unit from Abuja led by DCP. BEN IGWEH in collaboration with FSARS personnel of Benue State Command through intelligence led policing, arrested one Magudu Harris 36yrs of Shawon Ato Street behind Civil Service Commission, Makurdi. The suspect who is a graduate of Industrial Physics from University of Agriculture Makurdi (UAM), is the gang leader of a 4-man gang terrorising innocent residents of Makurdi the State Capital. He confessed to have masterminded and executed the kidnap of a female Civil Defence Officer on her way from Shelter of Glory Church and one Mrs. Veronica Jirgba on 20/09/2018 whom they collected the ransom of One Million Naira (#1,000,000) before her release on 24/09/2018.

2. Further investigation led to the arrest of other members of the gang, one Anyam Terhemen 34yrs of No 23 Idye Village off Vandeikya Street, Makurdi. He is a 2011 graduate of Psychology from Benue State University (BSU), the owner and driver of the gang’s operational Golf car and Paul Keghuur 27yrs an artisan of behind BNARDA Office Makurdi. While frantic effort is being made to arrest a fleeing member of the gang , identified as Loho Caleb of behind Wurukum Market Makurdi.

3. The IGP Monitoring unit as well as the Command has remained resolute in the fight against crime, as the Commissioner of Police CP. Ene Okon promised to discharge the mandate given him by IGP. Ibrahim K. Idris to ensure a crime free State.

4. While assuring the good people of Benue State of their safety, they are enjoined to go about their lawful businesses without apprehension and report all suspicious persons or movements to the Police.

According to the one-count charge, two defendants were accused of the offence, although only Mr. Echodo was arraigned at a magistrate court in Abuja.

Meanwhile a group of young men are currently denying these claims by the police, they described the charges  as false..One of such rebuttals is a post from one of his friends.....He accused the police of framing up an innocent boy.

A CASE OF POLICE BRUTALIZATION AND FRAME UP OF INNOCENT CITIZENS

Just yesterday being the 1st of October, 2018; I heard a very saddening tale of the ongoing detention and torture being experienced by my brother, class mate & head boy at Bristow Secondary School, Gboko in person of Mr. *Terungwa* *Harris* *Maguduu* in the hands of the men of the Nigeria Police Force in the name of investigating a kidnap case. I have known Mr. Terungwa Harris Magudu since 1991 and I can say without prejudice that he is a man of unquestionable character. Things like this, makes one to believe that Nigeria is truly a jungle that is far from civilization.

It was on a Wednesday the19th of September, 2018 when Mr. Terungwa Harris Magudu, who lives on Shawon Ato Street (The Street that runs in front of Civil Service Commission) went out to get recharge card at about 8pm and on his return, encountered men of the under-world, who accosted him and robbed him of his phone at gun point. Later the same night, he went to the Civil Defense office near radio Benue to report the incidence but his statement could not be registered that night because the officers on duty were very busy and so asked him to return the next day. But he couldn’t go back to do so as other events overtook him.

Like many of us would have done, Mr. Terungwa Harris Magudu had not remembered to block his SIM because he probably thought the robbers were just after the phone and would have discarded the SIM ever since. Now, the hoodlums who robbed him were actually on a mission to kidnap the wife of one Engr James Jirgba. An evil they later perpetuated. It is believed a huge ransom was paid before she was later released to her family. In the spirit of good neighborliness, Mr. Magudu had innocently gone to thank God with the family of Engr James Jirgba for the safe release of his wife. 

Mr. Magadu went on to block the said SIM and also register a statement with the Police ‘B’ Division on 23rd September, 2018 concerning the robbery incident that claimed his phone. Unknowing to him, his SIM had been used by the kidnappers to negotiate for and collect the said ransom before releasing Mrs. Jirgba.  Life seemed to be going on normal for Mr. Magudu when on 28th September, 2018; men of the Nigeria Police Force staged a decoy and got him arrested as a prime suspect in the kidnap case after which they arrested 2 of his friends with whom he does carpentry work to earn a living.

From that day till date, he has been in custody; being detained and moved from Police Station to Police Station as the Police deem it fit making it difficult to locate him per time. During this time, they have brought him to his house on 3 occasions where his documents were retrieved, his ATM cards confiscated, his electronics carted away with, his wife manhandled and her phone seized. Among the many inhumane things they did during these 3 visits, the last visit which took place on 1st October, 2018 was the most grievous.

On that day, being yesterday, they brought Mr. Magudu to his house, who by this time has been obviously brutalized beyond his capacity to endure. And they asked him to confess to his wife that he was a kidnapper which he did in pain and agony. When his wife rejected the confession as being false and under duress, she received some rough handling in the presence of her two little sons who are 5 & 3 years respectively. They interrogated her to produce the gun her husband gave to her then she presented her 2 sons as the guns her husband had given her which infuriated them and they rough handled her some more. Seeing they were making no head way, they shot 2 bullets on the ground, in the presence of his wife and her 2 little sons; greatly traumatizing and emotionally distressing them. If this is not madness and rascality then I don’t know what else to call it.

The community leaders who know very well the character of Mr. Magudu, had on one of these days gone to the Police Station to negotiate for his release but were not even allowed to see him on grounds that there were orders from Abuja for no one to see him. When they insisted, they ended up in detention at the counter though later released and warned never to come. 

We have a lawyer on the case, who is working on securing his bail but while that is ongoing, it is our determined purpose to pursue the case on every front until justice is meted out covering the full range of these evils being done to this innocent gentle man and his family. If our police was as professional like they claim, they would have profiled Mr. Magudu’s line to see that no criminal conversation had ever taken place on his line until the time of the reported loss of his phone but no. Our police take pleasure in killing and destroying lives of those they are supposed to protect. We learnt the particular unit responsible for this wickedness is the Intelligence Response Team, under the office of the IGP who are only answerable to the AIG Zone 4.

While I was writing this post, I came across the post by the Benue State Police command, parading Mr. Magudu as the leader of a kidnap gang. My heart bleeds profusely at the number of innocent people who are suffering mercilessly at the hands of the police who rope them up in all kinds of allegations knowing they have no one to plead their case or stand for their deliverance but I know that the God and father of the fatherless will plead this case for us.

I call on all men and women of goodwill to join in this battle against impunity in our nation for evil will only continue to thrive as long as good people do nothing.

I call on all Bristow Alumni Association members to stand up to be counted in this matter. We cannot let our very own go down as though he has no family.

“May the heavens continually reveal the iniquity of these unscrupulous elements while the earth rises up against them” (Job 20:27).

Amen.

 

Below are pictures of Mr. Harris Terungwa Magudu, his wife, sons and the 2 spots where the gun was shot in front of his children.

CC: Sidney Ahura. 

#BAA WW should arise and save her own!!