By Abdulrasheed HAMMAD

UPDATE:

Police refunds N5,000 collected from journalist 

The Police have refunded the N5,000 collected from the reporter as bail.  

Following the publication, the Police Complaint Response Unit (CRU) contacted the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Arkilla police station, where the incident occurred.  

The DPO of Arkilla Police Station, Abubakar Tijjani, reached out to the reporter apologised and refunded the the money. 

ON June 15, 2024, I set out to speak with several table water factory owners about their products not being registered with National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). I wanted to hear their side of the story after my thorough investigation. I was working on an investigative report about some Sokoto factories producing contaminated sachet water. 

My first stop was at SABUUZ, where I informed the manager that from my findings their water NAFDAC registration had expired, and their soda drink was also not registered with the agency. He confirmed the expired registration but claimed that their soda drink, Stars Flavour Pineapple Drink, was registered and asked me to recheck.

My next stop was at Al-Sheriff pure water factory,  located at No. 10 Kalabaina Road Arkilla NEPA Grid Sokoto state. This is a few minutes walk from SABUUZ.  After speaking with the manager, I was taken to the owner. I was going to ask him about the status of his registration, basically why the registration number E1-0164L on the  Al-Sharif Pure Water is not on NAFDAC database.

He confronted me by saying, “What are you doing here? Are you a NAFDAC staff member? What do you want? Go and write what you want to write and publish what you want to publish” .

Suddenly, he ordered the boys who work in a car wash stand nearby – I think the carwash is also owned by him – to beat me and my fixer (local guide), seizing our money, phones, and Orodata identity tag, and dragging us into his compound.

In the process, my fixer lost his wristwatch.

A tall man, I presumed to be a friend of the owner, handcuffed us without stating any offence we had committed. During the interrogation that followed, we were asked how we got our information. I showed them how to access the NAFDAC portal, I also inputed the number on Al-Sherrif pure water and showed them that the the registration was not officially recognised.

During the process, they allowed the people in their community to take our pictures while being handcuffed.

Afterward, they returned all our belongings except my fixer’s wristwatch.

Police pocket N5,000 bail, rally behind unlicensed  water factory owner, Al -Sherrif

We were handcuffed, taken inside a car, and then taken to Arkilla police station, where we were questioned by the divisional police officer (DPO) and other officers on duty.

After the interrogation, they decided to transfer our case to the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Sokoto, for no tangible reason or informing us of any offence we had committed.

Despite explaining the importance of the work I was doing which is to ensure safe drinking water for Sokoto residents and encourage factories to register with regulatory bodies, the police officers harassed us as we were handcuffed while being taken to the State CID Sokoto.

This is a breach of our fundamental human right to the dignity of a human person as enshrined in Section 34(1)(a) of the Constitution, which states that (1) Every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person, and accordingly – (a) no person shall be subject to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment.

This also violates several laws, including Section 34 of the Police Act, Section 5 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, and relevant sections of the Administration of Criminal Justice Laws in Lagos and Kano. These laws stipulate that a suspect or defendant may only be handcuffed, bound, or restrained if there is a reasonable apprehension of violence, an attempt to escape, a necessity for safety, or by court order.  This arrest and detainment were illegal neither I nor my fixer had violated any law to warrant such degrading treatment.

When I saw that the situation was getting out of hand, I quickly called a friend, a security official, who came to the State CID office and intervened, calling for an amicable settlement. Even though I presented my Orodata identity tag and letter of introduction showing that I am a freelance journalist working on a fake and unlicensed pure water factories in Sokoto, the police labeled me a fake journalist.

The police had called the tricycle rider to carry us to State CID after we were handcuffed. This was before my friend who I called informed them that they should call the tricycle rider to return.

I was forced to write an apology letter to Al-Sheriff pure water factory as a condition for bail. I was also forced to pay N5,000, despite claims that bail is free, but bail is not free at the Arkilla police station.

The police insisted the money was for bail, and we were only released after paying the N5,000.

This is in spite of the Nigeria Police Force’s stance against bail payment.  On June 22, 2024, the the police spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, reiterated the stance of the force that bail is free. He tweeted, ”I have said it several times that the police force doesn’t support or approve the payment of bail money at any stage. We only grant administrative bail and with no payment attached. We need to collectively put an end to the problem of bail money.”

The unbelievable experience left me highly traumatised. And I was not myself for days.  Following this incident, I visited Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching hospita, Sokoto on June 19, 2024, where a doctor confirmed my blood pressure was high at 156/88, and my pulse had risen to 101.

He prescribed medication. The inhuman treatment faced at the hands of the owner of the Al-Sheriff Pure Water Factory and harassment from the police has deeply affected my mental health and resulted in me developing high blood pressure.