LAGOS, Nigeria(VOICE OF NAIJA)-More witnesses have come forward to call wrong the dismissal of Edo State policewoman Edith Uduma, who reported the rape of a detained minor at the Ibie Divisional Police Station in the state.
The policewoman was under fire by her unit for reporting the rape to higher authority after her boss told her not to.
The Nigerian police in response had accused her of failing to report the incident and also receiving N45,000 as bribe money while demanding additional N1million bribe.
The police alleged that Edith only reported the case to the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ibie police station after the victim was unable to pay.
Further investigation nto the issue revealed that one of the officers involved in the case is Yibala Inah.
In a telephone conversation with SaharaReporters, he confirmed that on the night of October 7 when the incident happened, Edith reported the incident to the station officer of the Ibie Police Station.
“I witnessed the incident and the case was reported to the station officer that night because the DPO was not on seat. It happened around 11pm at night,” he said.
ASP Adamu Ishaku in a statement to SaharaReporters said that on October 8 which was the next day, he reported the case to the DPO who was not on seat at the time of the incident.
“I informed the DPO on the next day of the incident” he confirmed to SaharaReporters.
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When told that the DPO claimed ignorance on the issue, he said, “I know my DPO she would not say anything like that.”
Edith also claimed to have visited the office of the Area commander on October 8 to inform him of the case.
On reaching out to the Police Area Commander in question, he failed to react, instead he asked that SaharaReporters contact the Police Public Relations Officer.
SP Johnson, the personal assistant to the Police Commisisoner in Edo State who Edith also claimed to have reported to declined to comment when contacted by the agency. He also neither confirm or deny that the police woman reported the case to him.
In a signal seen by SaharaReporters, the DPO had claimed the incident happened on October 10, however, different sources all confirmed that it happened on October 7.
In the signal, the DPO also noted that Edith failed to report the case, however, words from the station officer shows that the DPO was informed of the case in the morning of the next day when she resumed office.
Edith insisted that Inah was the one who collected money from Abraham, the rapist policeman and she never received a bribe from him or had knowledge of it.
Inah confirmed to SaharaReporters that Abraham was scared of the incident going public. “I collected the money in cash from Abraham because he asked me to beg Edith and her husband but they rejected the money,” he said.
However, he told SaharaReporters that Edith requested for N1million instead.
Edith however told SaharaReporters, “He was at the scene of the event and collected N45,000 behind our back. It was an officer by the name, Kennedy, that told me that Inah had collected money over the issue.”
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Inah also confirmed that he was invited the next day by the DPO to return the money which he did.
On why she demanded N1 million, Edith told SaharaReporters, “I asked them to bring N1 million because I know they cannot afford it, and that way the case won’t die while the pressure will reduce. If I wanted to collect that money, I won’t make efforts to visit Area Commander, speak to the personal assistant to the commissioner or even file the case” she told SaharaReporters.
Other sources told the agency that the DPOs of Ibie (Edith own DPO), Auchi and Jataau were alleged of piling pressure on Edith to drop the issue before the higher ups got wind of it.
After several effort to reach SP Osemwegie Lilian, DPO of the Ibie Division finally yielded, she claimed to have taken immediate action but denied that anyone told her until later.
She further denied releasing any memo stating that the incident happened on October 10th, as against the October 7th that the case actually happened.
She refused to answer further question but instead referred SaharaReporters to the Police Public Relations Officer.
SaharaReporters also tried to contact the dismissed officer who raped the minor, Abraham, but his line failed to connect after several tries.
SaharaReporters
