In rapid succession, three illegal detention camps operated by Muslim scholars, where inmates are subjected to inhuman treatment, are discovered in Ibadan
By Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan
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| • Imoniyi: Detained and raped inmates. |
Musilat Bashiru, 20, a resident of Ilugun area of Ibadan, was unsure of what fate had in stock for her when, against her will, her mother, Adijat, handed her over to Alhaji Abdulganiyu Imoniyi, a Muslim cleric who operated an illegal detention centre at Ile-Tuntun Odinjo, in the Sango area of Ibadan. Adijat had requested Alhaji Imoniyi to school Musilat in the ways of Islam. Instead, however, Musilat was subjected to various forms of inhuman treatment. According to Musilat, she was raped repeatedly for four years she was in the camp, and her pubic hair constantly shaved to make charms. She also lamented that she bore a child for the Muslim cleric.
Narrating her ordeal to people after she was released from the camp by policemen, a despondent Musilat said that whenever Imoniyi wanted to have sex, he would just come in to where the inmates were and order any lady he wanted to come out and have a bath. When the lady came out, he would instruct her to lie down naked and forcefully have sex with her.
“I always refused but he would keep beating me to the extent that I would get tired and he would start having sex with me. He would do it as if he was sleeping with an animal. It was usually painful. At times, he would sleep with me for about two hours,” Musilat said.
Another victim, Bose Ogunjimi, 23, said during her two-year stay in the camp, she was forced to have sex with the cleric and his workers, adding that any of them had sex with her whenever they wanted to, as there was nobody she could complain to. She also could not run away as her legs, neck and hands were chained.
In her own case, Risikat Ojediran was in the camp for six years before being rescued by the policemen. A pretty 25-year-old lady, she said her captors, both Imoyi and his aides, raped her at will.
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| • The detainees. |
Her words: “ There was a day that early in the morning, Alfa slept with me three times. About 12 noon, another person came and forcefully took me outside and slept with me. Not more than two hours later, the third person came and slept with me. I almost died. They are very wicked.”
Interestingly, all the ladies, who said they no longer menstruated for the period of their incarceration, resumed the cycle the day they were paraded before the public. Some of them were heard begging the policemen to give them tissue paper to stem the flow of blood from them.
It was, however, not just a female affair, as about 15 men narrated their own horrible experiences. One of them was Nurudeen Olawoyin, who disclosed that the inmates were made to live without food and water for several days, adding that they were further subjected to various forms of torture. Nurudeen, a 400 level student of Business Administration at the Yaba Tech College of Technology, YABATEC, claimed inmates were made to eat excreta mixed with herbs. Amazingly, all the inmates were taken to the centre by their parents, except one identified as Segun, who was allegedly abducted. The eventual exposure of the camp was the result of a petition dated 5 February 2008, written by Nurudeen Olawoyin of 66B/779H Owode Academy, captioned: “Save my soul from the hands of 419 woman, one Alhaja Murili Ayorinde and others now at large.”
According to Olawoyin, he was duped of N380,000:00 by Alhaja Murili of Testing Ground, Iwo Road, Ibadan, since 2003 under the pretence that she would procure for him visas to Dubai and Saudi Arabia. However, after being duped, the duo hatched a plan with Alfa Imoniyi who took him to his house where he was charmed, locked up and serially tortured for almost three years, with all his property seized.
Eventually, acting on the petition, detectives stormed the camp, where they arrested Alfa Imoniyi, Oyeniyi and others, while 30 victims were liberated from captivity. Although the adult captives have been released, nine underage inmates have been taken to welfare homes, while their parents and the suspected captors are still being detained at Iyaganku Police Station, pending being charged to court.
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| • Parents of the victims. |
Barely a week after the Sango experience, another illegal detention camp situated at Oojo area of Ibadan, in Akinyele Local Government Area, was discovered. Here, it was alleged, the dead bodies of inmates were fed to the survivors by the operators. The magazine gathered that 92 captives, including a mobile policeman who has allegedly spent two years, were rescued while nine people suspected to be operators of the camp are currently in the police net awaiting prosecution. Addressing newsmen, the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Assistant Inspector-General Udom Ekpoudom, said the grievous inhuman treatment of many of the captives usually resulted in multiple death, adding that the testimony of some of the rescued captives showed that they were administered with concoctions made from water with which dead inmates were washed.
“Grievous inhuman treatment and torture usually resulted in multiple death of the inmates who were subsequently buried without any report from the police. The hostages in unison confessed that bodies of deceased inmates were usually eaten by their captors.”
Ekpoudom disclosed that a majority of the captives “were shrunk to skeletal frame, with severe burns and rashes”.
Parading the nine suspected operators of the illegal camp, which include Muhammed Olore, Dauda Afanda and Muhammed Adeyemi, the AIG said the police had discovered that six of the hostages who were females were allegedly subjected “to series of sexual acts against their wishes” while “illegal abortions were carried out on the pregnant inmates in the camp”.
He stressed that the state police command was informed of the existence of the camp by a victim who said he was abducted by some unknown men who claimed to be policemen on 5 February when he was about to open his shop located at Oojo.
The informant said he was immediately taken to the camp where he met several people in chains, and was locked up in a room for days until he miraculously escaped and headed for the Oyo State Police Command headquarters to alert the police of the existence of the camp.
The police commissioner gave items recovered from the operators of the illegal camp as three cars, including a Volvo 744, three spades, two hoes, one digger, some spiritual soap, herbs, and plastic containers with reddish water drained from the washing of dead bodies.
Some of the rescued inmates who spoke with journalists at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad office, Dugbe, claimed they were kidnapped by unidentified men only to find themselves at the illegal camp. One of the inmates who was confirmed as a mobile policemen by his colleagues at the parade ground, said he was kidnapped two years ago while he was serving at a police station in Ogbomoso. Another captive who said he was tricked to the camp from Yola, simply identified himself as Mohammed, a graduate of the Federal University of Technology, Yola who had spent almost a year in the camp.
Yet another captive said he was an undergraduate of the University of Ibadan until he was tricked to a place where he was kidnapped by some men and subsequently found himself at the illegal detention camp.However, the head of the camp, Mohammed Olore, told journalists that he was not operating an illegal detention centre but was only taking care of people addicted to hard drugs as well as those having mental problems. He insisted that none of the captives were kidnapped and taken to the camp as claimed by most of them.
As if it was a season of discovery of illegal detention camps, a third centre was detected at the Orogun area of Ibadan where Quoranic education was being taught. It was owned by one Alfa Ali Adebowale who has been arrested for torturing one of his students to death.
According to Oladimeji David of Elewi-Odo area of Ibadan, Adebowale killed his (Oladimeji’s) brother who was handed over to him this month. His petition read: “ My younger brother, Biliaminu Bashiru, 20 years, was handed over to Alfa Adebowale on February 1 2008 in a very healthy condition for Quoranic education. On 13 February 2008 at about 9am, I was informed that my brother had died. I was reliably told that my brother was tortured to death by Alfa Adebowale and his cohorts.”
The body of the deceased has been deposited at General Hospital, Adeoyo, Ibadan.
Meanwhile, a police source said illegal detention camps in Ibadan cannot be less than 30. He added that the police authorities were working assiduously to detect other illegal camps.
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