BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
The widow of Sergeant Rauf Fawale, a policeman who died after he was allegedly beaten to a pulp at a club in Osogbo, Osun State by three operatives of the Department of State Security, has alleged that her husband bled through his ears before giving up the ghost.
Balikis, mother of three children, while giving evidence during inquest on circumstances surrounding Fawale’s death, said that she was informed that her husband was attacked by a DSS operative, named David Olowoporoku and two others after attending a birthday party of one Inspector Medinat Badmus at Riverside Bar and Lounge, Oke-Fia, Osogbo on January 14, 2021.
Sobbing profusely, Balikis demanded for justice, stating that Fawale was in a bad shape when he was brought home with bandage on his head. She explained that she noticed that the deceased was bleeding from his ears while lying on the bed in the room.
She said, “On January 14, 2021, my husband went to his work place. I tried his number that night but it wasn’t reachable. The next day, my phone was already off. On January 15, 2021, around 6pm, two people brought him home. I asked what went wrong, they told me to allow him rest because he was tired. The two people left, I then told my husband to go and rest in the room. I was asking him what happened but he didn’t respond. I gave birth 24 days after and my younger sister came to me and I collected her phone and inserted my SIM and called Rauf’s younger sister.
“One Lukeman came, a police officer, to visit my husband but my husband didn’t respond. He then came to meet me and told me that he was told that Rauf fought with three DSS officers. He then handed his phone over to me. His younger sister came to me and told me he (Fawale) was not responding to her. We then saw blood on the bed coming out of his ears. We called Lukeman and he came to meet us, the elder brother of Rauf also came.
“We then took him to Anuolu Private Hospital. Medinat told us that Rauf fell on the floor after he was beaten by three DSS officers. She then held David Olowoporoku and two others fled. Femi Adewara came with Medinat to Anuolu Hospital around 7pm. We were told that the brain was already damaged. Osun State University Teaching Hospital referred us to Esho Brain and Spine Centre. The Commissioner of Police and the police doctor came to check on him on January 17, 2021 after the surgery.
“On January 18, he (Fawale) couldn’t respond (to anything). On January 23, Rauf died. All his colleagues came to his burial after his corpse was released to us except for Inspector Medinat. We later went to the state CID and the CP told us that a letter was sent to the DSS Command in Osun State but there was no response. My husband left me with three children; I do menial jobs to feed my children. I think David Olowoporoku killed my husband.”
Father of the deceased, Rabiu Fawale, said that he borrowed some money to cater for the hospital bills of his son.
He said, “Rauf Fawale is my son. On January 17, 2021, I was called from the farm that my son was in the hospital at LAUTECH (now Osun State University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo). My son could not talk. The next day, he was to do x-ray. We were asked to take him to where surgery would be carried out on him. We were then asked to bring N1million. His head was cut open at the hospital. After a week, he died.
“Medinat asked me not to call her again after his death. She gave me the number of the person that I could call. I went to the Human Rights Commission to report. All the money I spent on him was borrowed. I got money from the cooperative. He was the bread winner of our family.”
Meanwhile, the principal officer in charge of Investigation and Communication with the DSS, Femi Kolade, said that Olowoporoku reported that he was manhandled and abducted at the scene of the incident by Medinat.
Kolade said that “On January 15, a report was written by me on our staff, David Olowoporoku. He reported that he was abducted and manhandled by a police officer whom he identified as Medinat. Also, an incident report was made by Femi Adewara which I got at the office. On January 17, 2021, I received a letter from a strange person whom I later discovered to be the DPO of Dada Estate Police Station.
“Through a text message, she said she wanted to report the incident. I went to her office and she narrated the incident to me.
“I called the Riverside Manager, Tope, and he narrated the incident to me. I requested for their CCTV footage but he said he would get back to me as he didn’t have the password to the footage. On Tuesday, I was called that the CCTV footage had been overridden with time because of the setting. It would erase every four days because of the capacity of the hard disk. I sent it to our headquarters in Abuja but to no avail. Along the line, I got the news that the victim had died. We got a letter from the CP requesting that we release David Olowoporoku and two others to them (Police).
“I told our Director that our investigation was still ongoing and could not be compromised and that no one can be released until the investigation is concluded.”
