A human rights activist has accused an Investigating Police Officer (IPO) attached to the Area M Police Command of hurling insults at him during a dispute over the handling of a defilement case involving a 10-year-old girl, an allegation the Lagos State Police Command has denied.
Prince Saviour Iche, founder and president of the Ambassador for Peace and Enlightenment Foundation (AMPEF), said he intervened in the case after a distressed mother came to his office seeking justice for her daughter, who she said was assaulted by a carpenter’s apprentice.
“I am demanding that the officer explain to the world how I am an imbecile and an idiot,” Iche said, describing the alleged confrontation at the Area M station.
According to the child’s mother, Akpala Limmy Cynthia, the incident occurred on a Saturday evening while she was minding her shop with her daughter.
“It happened on Saturday around 6 p.m. I was in the shop with my daughter,” Cynthia said. “She said she wanted to use the toilet. I realised she wouldn’t be able to go home because it was a bit late, though not yet dark, so I told her to use the backyard instead.”
She said her daughter mentioned that a carpenter’s apprentice was still working nearby, but she sent the girl out regardless. Minutes later, the child returned in distress.
“In less than five minutes, she came back crying, saying, ‘Mummy, this boy is touching my breasts and using his thing to ‘choke’ my private part,’” Cynthia recounted. “I ran out and saw the boy standing by the gate. I confronted him: ‘What are you doing to my child’s body? Why are you touching her breasts? What are you looking for?”
Cynthia said she demanded the apprentice’s employer be called, and when the woman arrived, she defended him. “She told me, ‘Madam, leave my boy. I am here now. My boy cannot do such a thing. I’ve known him for a long time,” Cynthia said. “I refused, saying, ‘This is what they are saying. I cannot leave him.’”
A confrontation followed with the employer’s husband, who Cynthia said questioned whether she had medical proof her daughter had been molested before slapping her. “I told him, ‘If it were your daughter, is this the kind of question you would ask?’ He then slapped me hard across the face,” she said.
Cynthia said she went to the Isheri Police Station that evening to report the incident, but was told the case would be addressed on Monday because the station does not operate on Sundays.
After following up the next morning, she said officers took her statement and asked her to return on Monday.
But by Sunday afternoon, she said the situation had reversed.
“Policemen with guns came banging on my door,” Cynthia said. “When I asked why, one of them said I was being accused of fighting someone and making false accusations.”
She said she was taken to the station along with her husband, her pastor, and two human rights officers, Iche and his partner, Solomon Neye, where she alleged police officers dismissed the rights workers outright.
“Human rights, my foot. What do they know? Do they even have an office? Get out. Useless,” an officer allegedly shouted at them.
Iche corroborated this account, saying he was surprised the suspect’s employers had been able to bring armed police officers from Area M to confront the mother.
“I asked them why they came fully armed to meet a woman. They said there was a petition against the woman,” he said, adding that officers told him the petition accused Cynthia of assault and defamation.
Iche said the dispute escalated when he questioned the Investigating Police Officer, Ifeoma (IPO), about the handling of the case.
“While we were talking, the IPO named Ifeoma started insulting me. She insulted my mother, called me an imbecile, and said that there was nothing I knew, all manner of abusive words,” Iche alleged. “I told her that she appears to be biased in the case, which she shouldn’t be. She said she would ‘walk me out.’ To avoid embarrassment, I walked out myself.”
Iche also alleged that the suspect’s sister boasted that the family intended to see Cythia imprisoned.
“They said they were going to ensure the survivor’s mother goes to jail, that they would spend millions,” he said.
He further claimed the same IPO he accused of insulting him was later assigned to write the mother’s statement, a development he objected to.
“The IPO who had been insulting me was now writing the statement for our complainant. I refused, after all, Cythia is educated. Why should the abusive IPO write her statement?” Iche said.
Both Cynthia and Iche described a chaotic process in arranging medical examinations for the child, with the suspect and his relatives allegedly present at multiple stages despite objections from rights workers and hospital staff.
A police Divisional Crime Officer reportedly directed that the case be examined at both the Igando General Hospital and Mirabel sexual assault referral centres.
At the hospital, Cynthia said staff objected when the suspect’s family attempted to accompany them.
“The hospital staff objected, saying he should not be following us,” she said. “The boy’s family quarrelled with the nurses, causing chaos. The nurses eventually sent them outside.”
At the Mirabel Centre the next day, a doctor reportedly suspended proceedings after noticing a commotion outside linked to the suspect’s relatives.
“He said this was not supposed to happen, that the case had been compromised,” Cynthia said, adding that the doctor declined to speak further with the accompanying policewoman.
Cynthia also alleged that the suspect later took photographs of her and her daughter at the police station without consent.
