How this 27 year old car dealer allegedly murdered in police custody in Edo State

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27-year-old car dealer, Benson Obode, was allegedly
beaten to death while in police custody in Edo state.
According to leadership, Benson, a young businessman
who sold cars to eke a living, was arrested by a team of
armed policemen from Lagos command accompanied with
some officer from the Edo State Police Command on
May 21st over allegations that he was an armed robber.
Efforts by family members and their lawyer to reach him
while he was in police custody according to his elder
sister, Mrs Osawaru Izeyi, failed as they refused him to
gain access to a lawyer or see any family member. They
were later to find out that his corpse was deposited at
Central Hospital Benin mortuary few weeks ago.
According to his sister:

“He (Benson) passed the night in my house and in
the morning, he swept the compound and left to
his rented apartment. I was later called on phone
that people were holding him and when I got
there, I saw his landlord and other people holding
him down. I asked what happened and he said he
doesn’t know but that they said the police came to
arrest him but that he couldn’t tell what offence he
had committed. Not quite long after, the
policemen came back in a Toyota Highlander.

They wore earrings and dreadlocks. If not for
the police colour on their rifles, I would have
doubted if they were indeed real policemen. I
asked them of what my brother had done, they
said I didn’t have any right to ask them questions.
I begged that they should tell me but they did not
talk to me. One of them collected my phone. I
had to go back home, dressed up and went back to
the state command. We saw the policemen and
tried to talk to them but they did not allow us to
talk at all. We waited endlessly to see who could
talk to us but nobody did. We went to see OC
SARS here in Edo State but he did not attend
to us too.

They only told us later that he bought a stolen
vehicle and that he was an armed robber; I was
surprised. He stayed with me for a long time and
he never took my money. If he didn’t have money,
he always requested from me and I would give
him. The policeman insisted that he is a thief and
that they are ‘scorpion SARS’ from Lagos. The
next day, May 22nd, we went back with a
lawyer since nobody was listening to us so that
they could talk to him and if possible, see my
brother so that we could ask him some questions.

But they did not allow the lawyer to talk to
them. The lawyer waited and eventually, they
said he was an armed robber but even then, they
did not allow the lawyer to see him. He later
told me “na lawyer you carry come, you go
waka, you go tire.” I asked of what that could
mean. The following day, May 23rd, when we
got there, he said they had moved my brother to
Abuja and we later called a lawyer in Abuja to
help us search police stations there. He went
there but could not see my brother. Later, the
police told us again that they had taken him to
Ikeja, Lagos.

My uncle who is a policeman went there and
searched several police stations but did not see
him. He is 26. He goes to Cotonu; buys cars
and sell them with little gains. Sometimes, people
send cars from abroad and he helps them to
market them. He has never been linked with any
act of violence at all and he never told me he had
any issue with anybody.

They have been staying with me since our father
died. Assuming he is a stubborn person, we won’t
take it like this. I don’t know what to do again;
we are tired.

My mother is in my house and she is worried.
Once she heard any phone call, she would jump
up and come to me to ask, ‘What are they saying
about my son?’ Only yesterday, she said I should
take her to Lagos. I asked her, ‘To do what?’
She said I should just take her there. We are
tired and confused,” she said.

They were to be informed later that his corpse
had been deposited at the Central Hospital, Benin
by some policemen led by one Corporal Oniyon
Musa some few weeks ago. This sparked off
protest and outrage by family members including
members of the civil society i

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