DPO Re-arrests 14-Year-Old Boy Earlier Detained For Two Days With Criminals For Insulting Female Classmate
SaharaReporters learnt that ThankGod was picked up by policemen on Friday afternoon.
The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja Police Station, Bayero Umar Sani, has re-arrested a 14-year-old boy identified as ThankGod (surname withheld).
SaharaReporters learnt that ThankGod was picked up by policemen on Friday afternoon.
“He was on his way to fill gas but was picked up by the DPO himself on the way,” a source said.
According to sources, his rearrest is connected to an earlier report by the newspaper revealing how the boy was locked up and tortured for two days on the orders of the DPO.
ThankGod, a senior secondary school 1 student, on Monday had an issue with a female classmate who vowed to “deal” with him for hurling insults at her.
“On Tuesday, November 5, 2024, after ThankGod came back from school, a man came and held him by the trousers. The man was not in uniform, so we asked him why and what happened, and he told us he is a police officer and showed us his ID card,” a relation of the boy told SaharaReporters.
“He told us he was sent to come and arrest ThankGod by the DPO. The DPO’s name is Bayero Umar Sani of Airport station. He explained that ThankGod and a girl in his school had an issue. They threatened each other and she asked the DPO to arrest ThankGod.
“We immediately went to the girl’s house to look for her. We met her mother and she said she wasn’t aware. She told us the girl had gone to Islamia. Later, we met the girl, heard her side of the story, and asked her to contact the DPO. She called the DPO to come and see her. To our surprise, the DPO rushed down from a beer parlour, refused to listen and threatened to charge ThankGod to court. The relationship between them remains unknown to us.
“ThankGod was arrested on Monday and was in the same detention cell with thieves and criminals. He spent two nights in the cell. He was tortured by policemen and his cell mates. Also, the sister took food to the station for him but she was told that she could not give him food because it was already past 10 pm and that food was not allowed after 6 pm.”
A source in the neighborhood who spoke to SaharaReporters had said, “She was at fault, she bragged initially that she was going to ‘show’ the boy, that she has a boyfriend who is a senior police officer; we all thought she was joking.
“It was after the family reached out to the Police Public Complaint Commission, which intervened that the boy was released.
“It was glaring the DPO, Bayero Umar Sani, has a personal interest in the case, possibly due to an affair with the girl as she claimed, because this girl never filed a statement or visited the station. She only informed the DPO who then ordered his men to arrest the boy.”
When contacted, Sani said he was not aware of the arrest.
