Family Of Inspector Who Died In Police Custody Demands N20 Million, Apology

The family of a police inspector, Taiye Atobiloye, who died after being detained at the ‘D’ Division of the Kogi State Police Command, has demanded the sum of N20 Million as compensation.

The family’s lawyer, A.G. Ademola-Bank, who made the demand in a release, noted that the police had done the “abominable by being negligent and insensitive to the medical condition of the deceased, which occasioned his untimely death.”

Saturday PUNCH had reported how Taiye, who was attached to the Oke Onigbin Police Division, Kwara State, was posted to the Zone 8 Police Command, Lokoja, Kogi State, on special duty.

However, the policeman declined the posting after a disagreement at the division that another inspector was originally meant for the assignment.

But after attempts by the inspector to reverse the deployment failed, he reported at the zonal headquarters for the special duty and was detained in a cell for absence from work without permission.

His wife, Oluwabukola, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH, claimed that Taiye’s phone was collected from him as she last spoke to her husband at the point he was being thrown into the cell.

She said attempts to reach him on the phone afterwards were abortive.

Taiye, who died in the cell, did not have a child with his wife after 12 years of marriage.

The family counsel, Ademola-Bank, said the family had identified the inspector’s corpse at the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, and given their consent for an autopsy to unravel the cause of his death.

Alongside the N20m compensation, the family also demanded a thorough investigation into the cause of the death of the inspector, a public apology, immediate payments of all the deceased’s entitlement and funding of his burial.

Recall that the Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, had stated that the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, had ordered an investigation into Taiye’s death, assuring that justice would be served.

Source: Punch