It was a tall order for the AEPB (Abuja Environmental Protection Board) officials when they set out to rid the FCT of prostitution last Monday. Residents of Abuja, at the beginning of the week, were greeted with the news of how the Garki Divisional Police Officer and some of his officers forced their way into the AEPB premises at Area 3 to release arrested suspected commercial sex workers. ShareReports had it that the policemen on the orders of the DPO pulled down the gate of AEPB when they were refused entry. Since the story broke out, there have been different versions of the story from both sides.Explaining what happened, Director AEPB, Abubakar Yabu said the board has been mandated to arrest women loitering around the streets of Abuja after midnight and went ahead for operation on Friday, June 3rd at about 2am. The AEPB Taskforce team on patrol that night accosted some suspected prostitutes around Amigo supermarket, Wuse II and took them to the AEPB’s office in Area 3.During investigation, it was claimed by the AEPB officials that one Maryam Olofo was, in the first place, not arrested. According to AEPB, it was some of her friends that were arrested and she followed suite along with some of her friends trailing the AEPB van. He disclosed that it was during documentation of the girls that the said Maryam arrived.Narrating what happened, Mr. Olusegun Olusa said when he was informed of the incident, he rushed down and requested for the girl in question because the DPO Garki had come to rescue her. It was then he was told she was not among the girls that were arrested, rather, she only came to lodge complain about her arrested friends and in the course called the DPO to come to AEPB office immediately. When the DPO came and identified himself, he was made to wait for the policemen attached to AEPB to identify him but he lost patience and started shooting indiscriminately and broke down the gate leading into AEPB’s compound. In the process, everyone started running in confusion and some of the arrested suspects escaped. Unfortunately for the DPO, the lady that called him was still in the compound as he thought she had escaped with the others.“The next day when pressmen asked her why she called the DPO and not her parents she said she did not want her parents to know she was still outside at that hour. She also dismissed allegations that she was his daughter or his girlfriend but that she has had a long cordial relationship with him and it was only coincidental that she was bearing the same name with him. But to our amazement, we read something else in the paper where she said something totally different from what she said here. We have proof of what she said,” he defended.Another issue the AEPB was asked to clarify was the issue of most arrested ladies being dehumanized and stripped naked. “The story is completely false. The story and pictures the DPO is parading about is the one that he came and witnessed here sometime back. There was this lady that has always been caught for the same act and when we caught her for the third time, she decided to strip herself naked saying it was her boyfriend that put her in that situation. Other ladies had to plead with her to cover up. Funny enough, we have her statement where she confessed to doing it deliberately.”“We do not dehumanize people here and so we were surprised when we learnt the DPO was circulating pictures of a naked woman saying that is what we do to them here. He came here and broke down our gates and fired 12 gun shots and no one is saying anything. Our concern is who gave him the authority to come and do what he did here on that day?” Head of AEPB’s Enforcement Unit, Olusegun Olusa queried.Reacting, Commissioner of Police, CP John Haruna said at a press briefing on Thursday that what happened between the police and the AEPB in Garki was unfortunate. He said also that all policemen working with other agencies including the AEPB were told to behave themselves and abide by the established code of conduct. He also said that the police will reorganize its operations within the city and the clash between the Police and AEPB is under investigation.According to the AEPB, nine of the policemen attached to it when the episode took place have been in detention with the force since the unfortunate incidence happened.All efforts to get DPO Garki, John Olofo to give his own side of the story proved abortive as his mobile phone was switched off and there was no reply to a text sent to his phone either.It would be recalled that speaking to the press earlier in the week, DPO John Olofo said he got a distress call from one of the ladies around 3.26am after the lady informed him that they were coming back from a party when some of the people with the assistance of policemen brutalized them and where taking them to an undisclosed location.“Since the AEPB Area 3 is under my jurisdiction, I requested to speak to any of the policemen there when she called back and said they were at AEPB Garki but the policeman there spoke rudely to me”. He then decided to go to the office with his patrol team.The DPO continued, “The policemen in my team were shocked and while waiting for signals after radioing my colleagues, I saw a completely naked lady crying inside the compound and before I knew what was happening, the officials inside the place started throwing bottles at us indiscriminately, while the policemen there shot their guns sporadically. I called my boss to update him with reports and he asked me to pull my patrol team out of the place,” he said.
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