Alhaji Suleiman Yerima, a Lagos-based foreign
exchange dealer has accused the Assistant
Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 2,
Lagos, Joseph Mbu, of directing policemen to
torture him over a forex deal that went wrong.
The businessman said Mbu directed policemen
from Zone 2 to torture him and one of the ways
they tortured him was to dip his face into a
bucket of water, a form of torture known as
'water-boarding', used to extract confessions
from terrorists.
The man who has petitioned president Buhari
said he was detained for 80 days by the police
after he and a friend were picked up by the
EFCC. He said his friend, a man named Uwem
Antia was equally tortured and beaten. He
claimed in his petition that Antia is lying
critically ill in a Lagos hospital following
several beatings and torture by the police
which included 'hanging him on a pole like a
roasted chicken from 11pm till the early hours of
the morning.'
He said, “Over 250 people are in EFCC
detention cells; some have stayed for four
months, some six months. EFCC did water
boarding to me and Antia and it was because a
friend reached former IG Suleiman Abba that I
was not beaten but my life is in danger, the
policemen and EFCC officials are out to kill
me.”
Punch reports
Yerima said that his ordeal began on
March 3, 2015, when EFCC operatives
phoned him that he was needed at their
office in respect of a petition written
against him and Antia by one Denis Ale
and Mrs. Gladys Aginwa, both of Standard
Chartered Bank, Lagos.
The FOREX dealer stated that he visited
the EFCC office with Antia in company
with his lawyers and was shown the
petition, in which Ale alleged that he
gave him N120m to source for dollars and
that he had not fulfilled the bargain.
Yerima said, “I told the operatives that
it was not N120m but N627m which they
sent to Uwem Antia’s account with
Zenith Bank. Antia, who is the
Managing Director of Kafisto Oil and
Gas Ltd., was the one that brought the
customers to me and my duty was to source
for dollars.
“When Mr. Antia confirmed the alert of
N627m in his account, I gave them $1m
in cash. The next day, Antia gave them
the balance of $2.250m and both
transactions were properly documented.
During our interrogation, Antia
supported our statements with
documentary proof of evidence and
clearly stated in his written and oral
statements that I had given him the
balance of $2.250m, which he delivered
to Denis Ale.”
In spite of Antia’s statement and
evidence exonerating him from any
wrongful act in the transaction, the
businessman said one Mr. Adeola, Head
of BFF at the EFCC, still ordered that he
and Antia should be detained.
Yerima stated that they were denied
bail and access to their families and
lawyers by the EFCC Director of
Operations, IIiyasu Kwarbai, and that
when they challenged the treatment, they
were rushed to a magistrate court on
March 12, where the commission
obtained a detention order for 30 days.
He said, “On the evening of March 13
around 8pm, policemen from Zone 2, led
by one DSP Dantoro, came to the EFCC
detention facility. Antia was released to
the officers on the instruction of
Kwarbai and he was handcuffed by the
officers and his legs chained.
“The officers started beating him
mercilessly in the presence of EFCC
officials, the policemen later took him
away to their torture chamber at Zone 2
and continued the torture under the
directive of Mr. Joseph Mbu and
supervised by Dantoro.”
But the EFCC denied detaining Yerima
and Antia for extended period of time.
The commission’s spokesman, Wilson
Uwujaren, who said he was not aware of
Yerima’s case, noted that the anti-graft
agency did not keep suspects in its
custody unnecessarily.
When contacted by Punch, Joseph Mbu
could not be reached for comment.
Source: Punch
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