When Abigail Ige, an HND II student of the Department of Microbiology, Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, left her hostel on Monday for Fayose Market on Ajilosun Road in the Ekiti State capital to buy fingerlings to be used for her project, she felt there was nothing to fear because her mission was a genuine one..
Photo:Abigail Ige, an HND II student of the Department of Microbiology, Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti
PUNCH METRO gathered that at the market, a policeman accosted her and demanded to know the contents of Ige's bag. According to eyewitnesses' accounts, while Ige saw nothing wrong in the policeman's demand, his insistence that the search would be conducted at a nearby police station infuriated the student.
This was the beginning of trouble for Ige, who is now in excruciating pain at the University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti.
She said, "I went to Fayose Market to buy some fingerlings for my project. As I was coming back, a policeman met me and said he wanted to search my hand bag. I told him to empty the contents of the bag right there in the market because I am aware of their tricks.
"He said 'no' and snatched the bag from me and took it to their station. After I finished buying other things I needed, I went to the station, since it is not far from where he met me. As I got there, he said that he would deal with me because I refused to allow him to search my bag in the market. He asked me to enter the cell and I refused, because I knew I had not committed any offence.
"Thereafter, two policemen and two policewomen came out and started beating me. When I became tired, they now dragged me inside the cell. The first policeman, Femi, came inside the cell with a plank and hit me on the head four times. A policewoman came inside the cell and pleaded that they should leave me but they refused. I later passed out. But before then, they said that if I died, nothing would happen."
The woman, who sold fingerlings to Ige, saw what she went through in the hands of the police and quickly alerted the polytechnic.
The Rector of the Polytechnic, Mrs. Taiwo Akande, in an interview with journalists said that the case had been reported to the police authorities, adding that it took time before the school authorities prevailed on the students not to invade the police station.
She, however, said that how the police handled the case would determine the next step the school would take.
The Commissioner of Health, Dr. Femi Thomas, has visited the student at the hospital to know how she was responding to treatment.
A lawmaker representing Ikere II at the state House of Assembly, Mr. Bolu Akomolafe, who also visited the student, said that the House would summon the Commissioner of Police, Ekiti State Command, Mr. Katso Kakwe, to the House on the matter.
Akomolafe said the matter was of public importance and it would be given priority when the House reconvenes on Wednesday (today).
The Ekiti State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Jimoh Mohammed, told PUNCH METRO that the command was already investigating the matter.
