On September 10, 2020, officials of the deadly police unit Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS) stormed an apartment in Abuja intending to arrest Afam Ugwunwa. Their target was not around, and in his place, the police officers arrested Stella Ifeoma Abugu, who was visiting her fiancé.
The next thing Ifeoma’s family and friends saw was her lifeless body. The police allegedly killed her less than 24 hours after her arrest. Postmortem later revealed that Ifeoma popularly known as Ify by her friends was raped and killed by police officers, one of her friends and an activist Serah Ibrahim has revealed.
Members of the killer squad include ASP Bawa Samuel, ASP James Bawa, Inspector Samuel Une, and Sergeant Mohammed Usman.
Serah was reacting to another case of rape allegedly perpetrated by a police officer at Ogudu Police Station, Lagos, where a 17-year-old girl was sexually abused by a police officer who was meant to protect the young girl.
Narrating how the rapists in police uniform carried out their devilish act, she said:
“On September 2020 my friend Ify was raped by SARS in Lokogoma, Abuja. The lady just finished her introduction with her fiancé, Afam.
“Just four days after her introduction, SARS invaded Afam’s house because they had information he was in possession of weed and cocaine. He wasn’t at home but Ify was home, they searched the house without warrant and didn’t find anything, but they still arrested Ify, saying that she must provide for her fiancé.
“The next morning, not even 24 hours after she was illegally arrested, my friend Ify, died in custody of SARS.”
She said Ify’s fiancé and friends were going from one police station to another in search of the lady, who just completed one year in the national youth service corps.
While Afam couldn’t locate his darling, the neighbours said that they were sure that the killer policemen came from Lokogoma; he went there and the police claimed that “they didn’t carry out any arrest that day. He was searching all the stations for Ifeoma but couldn’t find her.
“The SARS that claimed they are looking for him, he went there and they said there was no information like that, okay provide my fiancé, but they said she wasn’t there.
“The next morning, they called him that Ifeoma was dead at the station, that when they picked her up in the house, she was already dead and they only kept her because they were trying to resuscitate her.
“The same Ify that just cooked soup for her friends and him the previous day before he went out, the full pot of soup was still there in the kitchen. The same Ifeoma that neighbours watched you take away from the house, you literally pushed her into your van because she refused to enter or follow you.
“The next thing, these SARS guys said she died of cocaine overdose from her house and that she was unresponsive when she was arrested, that they are keeping her dead body as evidence. They actually refused to release her body.”
“Police officers raped, killed Ify”
According to Serah, lawyers and civil rights groups were involved in the case before the police agreed to release her body for autopsy.
“Her Autopsy Report came out on the 5th October 2020. Guess what? Ifeoma had several sperm deposits in her. My friend was brutally raped by several SARS officers inside the police station and then strangled. RAPED AND ASPHYXIATION.”
It was revealed that after much pressure on the police authority, they released the deceased’s remains and “they INSTRUCTED she should be buried immediately. Made it look like they were doing us a favour releasing her body.”
“Everyone insisted on an autopsy and it was done finally. Not a single trace of drug was found in her. Her private part was raped so bad, it was mutilated. Not sperm from 1 source, or 2 4 of them just took a go at her and strangled her and up until today, there’s no justice for Ify.”
No evidence of drug abuse – Pathologist
While the police denied involvement in Ifeoma’s death, the Chief Consultant Pathologist of the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Ahmed Abimiku, said the police lied by claiming that the lady died of drug abuse.
In an Independent Investigative Panel probing cases of police brutality in Abuja in 2021, Abimiku revealed that Ifeoma Abugu died of anoxia, which can come about “as a result of strangulation, choking or suffocation,” revealing that the deceased’s fingernails, lips, and tongue were bluish before she died.
In an in depth analysis of the deceased organs, the pathologist signs in her knees, kidney, and her virginal swab revealed that, were death was far from drug abuse as claimed by the police, “noncancerous cyst, multiple fibroids in her uterus and virginal swab shows dead sperms deposited in her body.”
But the police rejected the autopsy result, questioning its authenticity, according to a report by Premium Times in 2021.
Where are the culprits?
The Nigeria police authority claimed that the killer police officers were arrested, but till date no body had been brought to book.
“There’s no justice for my beautiful Ifeoma. I hope this teenager in Lagos gets justice,” Serah, who described her friend as an angel, said.
According to Serah in X thread, police authorities would later claim that the killer police officers Bawa Samuel, James Bawa, Samuel Une, and Mohammed Usman were still at large.
Even after the autopsy, the police authority still kept Ifeoma’s body until February 24, 2021, when Rtd Justice Suleiman Galadima-led National Human Rights Commission panel ordered the police to release her body for proper burial.
The remains of Miss Abugu were laid to rest on April 22, 2021, in Enugu State.
In 2020, the activities of police officers, especially the SARS led to a nationwide protest, #EndSars, which also led to the deaths of an unknown number of protesters in Lagos and other parts of the country.