Man Falsely Accused Of Rape Spends Five Years In Detention For Inability To Pay Police N50,000 ‘Bribe’

A search for greener pastures brought Daniel Jagaba, a native of Kaduna State to Abuja. Jagaba, who is both a part-time farmer and a carpenter, chose to dwell in Barwa, a developing community close to Gosa, in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) due to its agrarian nature.

The hard-working carpenter who is Gbagyi by tribe, did not waste time in choosing his bride, Esther, from among the natives who were mostly Gbagyi.

Not long after, his wife gave birth to a son. Three years later, she became pregnant again, and Jagaba decided it was time to find a permanent home for his growing family. He heard that the house he was renting was up for sale and hurriedly went to bid for it.

“The owner of the house got a job outside Abuja and wanted to sell it. He wanted N200,000 for the house, but I pleaded with him to sell it to me for N150,000. He agreed. I also pleaded with him to take half of the money while I work to raise the remaining half by January,” he narrated to THE WHISTLER.

The bid for the house, Jagaba later realised, was the genesis of his problem. Some neighbours, led by a man called Joel, were angry that he, an outsider, would soon become a house owner in their community, and planned to sabotage it. They tried to persuade the house owner not to sell the house to Jagaba, proposing instead to get him someone else who would make a one-time payment for the house, but the house owner refused.

“He told them that he had already agreed to give me the house and that he wouldn’t renege on his promise,” Jagaba stated.

On October 22, 2017, Jagaba was on his way to get bread for his family after an exhausting job of clearing weeds around his house when two men accosted him on the way, with the message that he was needed at the chief’s palace.

“I will never forget that eventful day. I can still remember it vividly. It was on a Sunday. My pregnant wife and I had cleared the environment together. We finished around 9.15 am and were very hungry, so I decided to get bread from a nearby shop,” he said.

Jagaba explained that he tried to ask the men why he was needed at the chief’s palace, but they insisted he would know when he got there.

“I told them to allow me to buy the bread and take it to my wife first before going with them, but they refused and dragged me to the palace,” he said.

There at the palace, Jagaba was told he was summoned because a girl had accused him of rape.

“I told them I didn’t know what they were talking about, but they started to flog me. At a point, they took me to a hospital along with the supposed victim for a checkup on her, but the doctor disclosed that after examining her, he found no signs that she had been raped,” explained Jagaba.

But instead of letting Jagaba go, the men from the palace took him to a police outpost in the area and later dragged him to the Iddo Police Station.

“I stayed there for eight days,” he continued. ”The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) there asked the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) what I had done. When he was told the nature of the case and having been presented with the report from the hospital, he told the IPO to release me,” Jagaba narrated.

However, instead of releasing him, the IPO whose name Jagaba said was Bashiru, took him back to the police out-station and demanded he pay the sum of N50,000 before he would be released.

“He said I must produce the N50,000 or he would take me to court. I told him I didn’t have the money, so I slept two more days in the cell, making it ten days.

“In the afternoon, around 1 pm, he came back and was saying, ‘Where is that man that raped a girl?’ He told me to come to the counter and collect my shoes and belt. He then informed me that he had prepared my case file for prosecution,” he said.

This marked the beginning of a traumatic journey for Jagaba, who was kept in pre-trial detention at the Kuje Correctional Center pending the transfer of his case to an appropriate court.

When the case was filed at a high court, the trial lingered between 2018 and 2019. It was during this period that the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and delayed proceedings for another two years. The case was later moved to another high court presided over by a new judge who restarted the trial.

Jagaba stated that he had given up on the matter until a team of lawyers from the Citizens Gavel Foundation for Social Justice (Gavel) came to the Correctional Center on a visit.

“The Gavel team visited to offer pro bono legal services. My lawyer had abandoned me after stripping me of what little money I had, so I asked for their help and told them my story.

“When Gavel eventually started to follow up on my case, the corrupt prosecutor whom I found out while in detention had conspired with the policeman, stopped attending the court hearings,” Jagaba said.

Jagaba’s Gavel-appointed lawyer, Barrister Oluwaseyi Arowosebe, made several attempts to strike down the case for want of diligent prosecution until he was finally discharged and acquitted in October 2022.

Speaking on how they came into the matter, Arowosebe explained that the Citizens Gavel Foundation for Social Justice (Gavel), which was established in 2017 by Nelson Olanipekun, a human rights lawyer, aimed to offer their services to indigent prisoners who needed their help.

The organization, he explained, is a civic tech organisation that is keen on improving the pace of justice delivery through the use of technology.

“Gavel focuses on indigent victims of injustice and uses an online platform to connect inmates trapped in a judicial limbo with lawyers willing to help. Jagaba was one of such people, and we are happy we were able to help him,” Arowosebe stated.

Jagaba, who spent five years at the Kuje Correctional Center, stated that he did not know what his life would have become without the help of the Gavel team.

“In fact, I don’t know how to thank them. It is only God that will bless them,” he said.

The 52-year-old carpenter and father of three, is now back in the same community trying to pick up the pieces of his life. He had lost the very house that caused his misfortune, and had also lost five years of being with his family. But he is still hopeful.

“I was in prison when my third baby was born. For years, my children did not see me. My wife had to go back to her father’s house because she and the children couldn’t cope with the hard times.

“I imagine what I would have achieved if I had not gone to prison. Even though I did not succeed in buying that house then, I would have been able to build one for myself. For now, I have already bought another piece of land. I believe that soon, I will be the owner of another house,” he said gleefully.

He stated that he has forgiven all those who conspired to get him incarcerated, including the people in the community, the IPO, and even the prosecutor.

“The parents of the supposed rape victim came to apologise to me. I wanted to leave the community and start a new life in another place but my wife won’t have it. She has her mother to take care of, so here we are hoping for the best,” he said.