Nothing justifies theft but jungle justice without proper evidence is appalling.

So a trader allegedly stole an iPad and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad decided to take matters into their hands by torturing her.

The device apparently belongs to a woman in Ajah who was robbed in May.

The policemen reportedly stormed the trader’s home in Lagos Island to search for the iPad, but they did not find the item.

The trader, named Eleha, returned home to find the police in her house and they questioned her about the missing device.

Eleha said, “Around 10.20pm on May 14, I just returned home from a fellowship when the policemen asked me about a missing iPad and I told them I knew nothing about it. They checked my bag, but nothing was found there.”

According to Eleha, the cops insisted that they were getting signals from a tracker and that the device was within the compound.

According to a report by Punch, the police insisted on checking an office in the same compound where Eleha’s house is located, but could not gain entry because the door was locked.

Eleha said she went to collect the keys to the office from a pastor who owns the office.

“On getting back, they said their tracker showed that the iPad was around the streets I passed through to the pastor’s house,” she said.

That was when the officials subsequently whisked away the 29-year-old woman to the command headquarters, where she was reportedly stripped naked and tortured.

She said, “They took me to a room which they called ‘theatre’. They stripped me naked and tortured me for hours. When the pain became unbearable, it occurred to me that I saw a neighbour, Mr. Goriola, giving an iPad to his wife while I was going out in the morning on the fateful day. I told them and they went to arrest the wife that same night. The following day, Goriola was arrested. When they realised that I was bleeding, they took me to a nurse, who charged them N3,000. They later gave the nurse N1,000 to treat me.”

 

 

The Lagos state police spokesperson, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, confirmed that she was indeed invited for interrogation but said he knew nothing of the torture.

He said, “An iPad was stolen and was traced to her compound. It was observed that the iPad was on the streets she (Eleha) passed through and she was invited to the station. There was no issue of torture. I don’t know what torture she is talking about.”