Lady Reveals How Lagos Police Officers Physically And Sexually Assaulted Her & Others

Last Friday, some police officers attached
to the Lagos State Task Force on
Environmental and Special Offences
Unit illegally arrested residents in the
Lekki and Victoria Island areas of the
state.
One of the victims of last Friday’s police
raid in Lekki and VI areas of Lagos,
Stephanie, who was raided alongside her
friends around 11:45pm has revealed
how they were assaulted.
She posted videos and pictures of the
men dragging them into the cell. In one
of the videos, an officer was saying that
anyone that brings N10,000 will be
released immediately.
Her story:
On Friday, the second of September
2016, I was picked up from my home at
11:45pm by my friends Emma and
Albert. We headed to Ntyce club to meet
the party posse for Albert’s birthday
celebration. After spending a few
minutes there, we decided to change
locations because it was overcrowded.
The party posse consisted of me, Emma,
Ochuko, Jessica, Peace, Ifeoma,
Albert,Atiku and Sam. We all headed to
The Place in Lekki Phase 1 in three
separate cars. Emma and I got out of
Albert’s car and noticed a tussle going
on and we speculated that it was
probably a bouncer and someone trying
to get into the club or something along
those lines.
As Emma and I were crossing the street,
someone suddenly grabbed me by my
skirt and Emma’s bra in the process. At
first we thought he was trying to rob us,
we began to scream and Albert and the
two other guys with us rushed to pry his
hands off us. His grip was so tight and
his face so determined, it was obvious he
had no plans of letting go. That was the
first grip of fear I felt that night. He let
go only after he had torn my skirt and
ripped Emma’s bra in two (I didn’t even
know that was possible). The guys tried
to chase him off but he brought out
handcuffs and said he was a police
officer.
He called out to some other men and that
was when we realized we weren’t the
only ones being accosted. They started
yelling at us, they were armed and
began to shoot in the air and shove us
into their trucks. We tried to resist but
they threatened to shoot us if we didn’t
comply. The so called ‘Police Officers’
were heavily intoxicated and stank of
alcohol. They targeted the women and
roughly shoved us into their Task Force
trucks. Albert refused to let us go alone,
he got into the truck with us while the
other two guys followed in their cars
from behind.
The truck was dark, grimy and had a
foul smell. There were other girls and
two guys in the truck, the place was in
chaos- people were crying, screaming
and making calls on their phones. I was
surprised by how calm I was through the
whole ordeal, sitting at the back of a
dark truck, bleeding from my leg and
wondering if I was going to die.
They drove around for about twenty
more minutes and continued to pick up
random people and dragged them
forcefully into the truck, all within Lekki
and Victoria Island region.
One particular girl stood out to me, she
fought so hard to get away from the Task
Force. She had been about getting into
her car when she was forcefully dragged
away, she kicked and screamed for them
to let her go. To my utter disbelief, one
of them put his finger into her honeypot.
People watched helplessly but couldn’t do
anything to help us because they were
armed.
After a long tumultuous ride, we found
ourselves in their Task Force office in
Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos Mainland. The
people that carried out the raid were
different from those at the station.We
were herded like cattle, put in a straight
line and paraded in front of their
colleagues like criminals. We were
directed to a very disgusting room and
all asked to squat, when some people
refused, one member of the task force
began to hit them with an aluminum
rod.
When we initially refused to get into the
cell, this man forcefully dragged us in.
I need you to picture what the holding
cell looked like. Imagine a small
bedroom with a bucket latrine in the
corner, the whole room reeked of urine
and feces. Thirty girls packed like
sardines, insects and arthropods visibly
crawling on the walls, there was no
ventilation and it was poorly lit. We had
to stand for hours inhaling that terrible
stinking cell, there were two pregnant
women among us and also an asthmatic
patient. Our captors refused to listen to
our pleas for help, we could barely
breathe in there and we were worn out,
frustrated, injured and drowsy.
I had texted my friend Dayo earlier
explaining the whole situation to him, he
started looking for a solution from Abuja
where he was. He put me in touch with
an aid to the Vice President’s office who
in turn promised to engage DIG Agala
and DCP Adeoye, Chief of Operations of
Police, Lagos State.
They initially pretended that they didn’t
want money but later on, they began to
ask us how much we would give so we
could be released.
Peoples’ family and friends were outside
for hours, pleading to bail us out for
something we didn’t even do. Their pleas
fell on deaf ears though because the
officials didn’t allow them enter the
compound till 7am.
I and my friends were later released
around 8am after Atiku’s military
contacts came through. I am unsure of
how much they paid to get us out but I do
know that other people paid 10-15
thousand Naira to them.