Teenage boy who was wrongly arrested, says he was raped severally in prison

Bashua, recently regained his freedom, through
the help of the Stephen and Solomon
Foundation, an NGO.
While recounting his
experience, he said: “I was remanded at the
Kirikiri Prison and experienced being locked
with over 100 inmates who were older than me.
I was molested sexually. I was raped several
times in a day. They would tell me not to cry. I
was in remand for one month and those days
were hell for me. I was going home from Epe,
after coaching class, when a team of policemen
on patrol arrested me at Obalende and took me
to Bar Beach Police Station, Victoria Island.
They kept me in a cell with other boys and
suspects for one week. I was arrested on
November 20, 2014. The policemen told me and
the other boys that we belonged to a gang that
attacked a team of policemen.
I denied the allegation. I told them that I’m a
secondary school student. I was just 16-year-
old, but they did not listen to me. They beat us
mercilessly and said we should shut up. Our
parents were not aware we were in police
custody.
The police arraigned us at Igbosere
Magistrates’ Court, Obalende. They doctored
my age from 16 to 19 years. The magistrate
ordered we should be remanded in prison.”
Giwa Amu, a human rights lawyer who leads the
foundation said: “We have started rehabilitating
him. He is undergoing treatment and we have
placed him on scholarship so that he can
continue his education. As part of our prison
ministry, we visit the courts regularly to help
indigent accused, with free legal services.
We happened to be in court the day they were
to be arraigned. It was a dock brief and we
found out that they did not have any lawyer.
Bashorun, Oladipupo, 21, Samson, 21, Yinka,
19 and Andrew, 20, would have continued to
languish in prison but for our quick
intervention.”