Chijioke Iloanya

was 20 years old in 2012, he went for child dedication and was picked up there and allegedly taken to SARS office. When his family went to look for him, they were told he has been taken to the headquarters. When they got there, his mother spotted him being taken to the station and she acknowledged him as her child. The officer in charge of that station asked them to boot her and the family out of the premises. Since then they haven’t seen Chijioke. The next time they went, the officer boasted that he shot Chijioke and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Some other officers told the parents that it is possible ha hadn’t died and the man (officer in charge) could just be bluffing. He suggested they should bring some money to bribe the said officer. Chijoke’s father did as advised, brought the money but the officer said the amount was too small.

The father went back, sold his land, and some properties, raised N3 million, gave it to the buy the officer still insisted that the N3 million was ‘chicken change’! The most horrifying part of this story is that man in charge, made Chijioke’s dad look for Chijioke’s body in a river of dead bodies. The father had to turn every single corpse upside down searching for his son. One cannot imagine what that man went through. One part of him would have wanted to find the corpse for closure while another part will be hoping against hope that his boy will still be alive. This is the impunity of our police who are meant to protect us! The family went to Abuja to seek justice. But on getting there, the State CID told them they will have to pay money to transport their officers down to the state where it happened.