A Nigerian, Uzoma Joseph, died on Sunday, when South African police officers raided a home belonging to Azukah, wife of detained Nigerian militant, Henry Okah, claiming to be searching for drugs allegedly belonging to some tenants.
An eyewitnesses told SaharaReporters that the police, who came with dogs and weapons, unleashed one of their dogs on Uzoma, who ran to the next house. He was arrested and handcuffed and forced to take them to the location of the drugs in the house.
The witnesses said that when Uzoma hesitated, a police officer took out plastic bags from the trunk of a police car and placed them over his head, perhaps to stop him from screaming. The handcuffed Uzoma died soon afterwards.
Nigerians in the Turffontein neighbourhood told SaharaReporters that it was routine for South African police officers to torture and kill Nigerians in that country extra-judicially, and that Uzoma’s treatment amounted to torture. A state pathologist, Dr Moeng, who examined Uzoma’s body, told independent observers that there were no injuries except the cuts on the wrists from the handcuffs, which showed that he must have struggled to breathe before he died. That position was corroborated by Mantha Rapesu, an official with South Africa’s Independent Complaints Directorate. He told SaharaReporters by phone that he saw only wrist injuries on Uzoma’s body. He said he could not confirm that torture had been used until a post-mortem examination had been done.
Police officers at Booysens Police Station in Johannesburg, who were reportedly involved in the “drug-bust” said they could not speak about the issue until Monday, when their commanders would have been fully briefed.
Friends and family members of the deceased said that Nigerian consulate officials refused to come to their aid despite repeated calls to the embassy.