In a video interview with Vanguard, a man resident in Ibadan identified as Abiola Abass Owonikoko, has detailed the brutality he faced at the hands of the Nigeria Police Force in Mokola Ibadan. Abiola's ordeal which began on 23rd October 1993 started because he accompanied a friend whose father owned a masquerade group on an outing. While they were out on this outing, they encountered another group of masqueraders named "Gbenga Actors". A fight erupted and someone from the second group died.
The unfortunate incident led to a 28 year old series of nightmare for Abiola as the police invaded his home the next day at noon. When he was found away from home, his sister was arrested in his stead thus leaving to surrender himself in order to have his sister freed. Abiola was arrested upon willing arrival at the police station and he was to discover that the five other members of the masquerade group were also arrested.
They were all terribly tortured by the police in a bid to elicit a confession. 4 of the six group members died in the process leaving Abiola and one other person. After spending one year at the station, Abiola was charged to court and transferred to Agodi prisons. In 1998, he was sentenced to death by execution and the news of his sentence caused the death of almost every member of his family (his parents and two children who were involved in an accident on their way to visit him). In 2008, Governor Alao-Alaka commuted Abiola's death penalty to life imprisonment. He came out of prison in 2020 after a pardon received from President Muhammadu Buhari and the wife who had stood by Abiola all those long years passed away the year after leaving him with their only surviving child, a daughter.
Abiola who had been 21 years old at the time of his arrest and is now 59 years old, has implored the public to come to his aid as he's living homeless and in penury. Watch the video pathetic video of Abiola's ordeal here:
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