A bereaved father, Taiwo Daniel, has told the Panel of Inquiry Investigating Police Brutality and Extra-Judicial Killings in Osun State how the Police Area Commander in Ilesa, Mr Joshua Atunise, killed his final year student son and refused to release his corpse for the past 12 years.
The father said his son, Babatunde, who was in the second semester of his final year at the Osun State College of Technology, Esa Oke, was tagged an armed robber and was shot dead by the police officer.
The father said the police the police had refused to obey the court judgment that they should pay N30m compensation to the family and another Judgement that they should release the corpse for.burial.
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The father demanded that the panel should compel the police to obey all court judgement.
Narating how the incident happened, before the panel on Saturday, Daniel said some students, who were returning from a ceremony were arrested by the police and they showed the policemn their identity cards to prove that they were not hoodlums.
He said the students also called his son who he said was a student leader and he arrives there to identify them but the policeman arrested him together with the other students.
He said, “On November 28, 2008, some students coming from an occasion were arrested at Ilo Ijesha via Ilesha by the police at a checkpoint. After they identified themselves, the police refused to let them go. To further prove their identities, they called my son, Babatunde who was their leader, he was not at the scene. When he showed up, he was arrested alongside other students.
“The police officers told them to give them N30,000 before they could be released but my son refused. The officers called the Area Commander, Mr Joshua Atunise that they have arrested some armed robbers terrorising the community. The area commander took my son and one other student to the scene where he was arrested.
“The area commander kept on tagging my son armed robber and his objection to the false accusation infuriated the officer, Mr Atunise shot him twice on his thigh and took him to the Commissioner of Police, Mr John Morenike in Osogbo. The CP told Atunise that my son should be given medical attention but he took him to SARS cell in Oke-Baale, Osogbo. That was where my son bled to death on November 29, 2008.
“Police arraigned my son’s colleagues but they were discharged by the court. We filed a suit against the police for killing my son and withholding his corpse. On March 29th, 2012, the court declared that the killing of my son was illegal and ordered police should pay us N30 million and arrest the area commander who must be prosecuted. On May 28, 2012, a letter communicating the judgement of the court to the police was received by the police but nothing was done in that respect.
” Again, on May, 4th 2020, the court directed the police to release the corpse for appropriate burial but they refused to do that. The corpse is still with the police.”
The matter was adjourned to Thursday for hearing.