ABOUT sixty people were said to have died and buried in a newly-discovered illegal detention camp in Ojoo area of Ibadan.
This brings to 62 the number of people alleged to have been tortured to death by the founders of the three illegal detention camps discovered so far in the ancient city. Nine suspects have been arrested. Acting on a tip-off, men of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) stormed the camp on Friday and rescued 92 victims including children who have allegedly spent many years there. There were bruises all over their bodies. Among them were six girls who were alleged to have been sexually abused.
When Sunday Vanguard spoke with some of the inmates, they alleged that the prime suspect, Mohammed Olore, who claimed to be an Islamic cleric, only used the school to cover up, adding that he engaged in selling parts of those who died among them to influential people who patronized him. They pointed out that at least two to three people died within a month through torture and they were always taken to Sasa Cemetery for burial by the ‘cleric’ who later removed their parts and sold them.
Sunday Vanguard also gathered that some people including a mobile policeman from Arowomole in Ogbomoso were kidnapped and detained at the camp. The arrest of the prime suspect and his collaborators almost led to a full-blown confrontation between the police and loyalists of the suspects.
Oyo State police commissioner, Prince Udom Ekpoudom, while parading eleven suspects in Ibadan, in connection with the case, said “the experience at the scene was unbelievable and the treatment given to their captives, 90 per cent of them, was dehumanizing. Six of the hostages who are females complained that they were subjected to series of sexual acts against their wish. It was also discovered that illegal abortions were carried out on pregnant inmates in the camp. It was a situation where human beings were shrunk to skeletal frame with severe burns and rashes.
Grievous inhuman treatment usually resulted in multiple deaths of the inmates who were subsequently buried without any report to the police. The hostages in unison confessed that bodies of deceased inmates were usually eaten by their captors.”
The police boss, an assistant inspector general of police, AIG, confirmed that some influential people had been pestering him to release the suspects arrested earlier at Olomi in connection with illegal detention but he would not be cowed into releasing them without being tried by the court. But the prime suspect in the latest torture chamber, denied all the allegations, saying they were made to disparage his person.
He stated that “the policemen came to our Olore Islamic School at Ojoo and arrested me and my students. We don’t kill in our place as alleged. The motive for establishing the school, he stated, was to heal numerous people who are mentally-deranged. Also, we teach them Quran.”
On the allegation of torture, he confessed that those who misbehaved were beaten but said none of them died except the two who were sick and taken to their parents. “We also beat them when they escaped. Somebody yet to be cured of insanity but ran away would be beaten when caught. The allegations they were leveling against me are false.
I did not beat anybody to death. All they are saying is just to implicate me. They are saying that just to paint me black. The water and the bones that were said to have been taken from the bodies of those that died should be taken to the doctors for examination to ascertain whether it is true or not. If anybody is sick, we hand him over to his parents to take care of him. Two of them died in the custody of their parents.”
One of the suspects, Sherif Salami, who was alleged to have killed more than fifteen inmates, also denied the allegation, saying they were unfounded and malicious. According to him, “they are lying. They brought me too to the place just like any of them. What they are saying is to implicate me so that they can be released. This is my eighth year in this school.” When asked why all the inmates were accusing him of having killed about fifteen people, he noted that it was because they did not like him since he was always punishing them when they erred. “We beat them when they erred. It is a lie that some people died. Anytime any of them fell sick, his parents were invited to come and treat him.”
The suspects who are helping the police in their investigations, besides Olore and Salami, areDauda Atanda, Mohammed Adeyemi, Yusuff Owolabi, Ismail Balogun Lukman Olalekan, Alfa Taye Ogunlofin and Adeola Adeniyi. Among the callers at the police station yesterday were the Are Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Azeez Arisekola, and the former Commissioner for Justice in the administration of Senator Rashidi Ladoja, Barrister Adebayo Shittu.