ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
Over one month after the Bauchi State Police Command conducted an autopsy on late Dauda Danladi, who was allegedly tortured to death by police operatives, the result is yet to be released to the family, NATIONAL ACCORD reports.
Recall that Danladi was reportedly arrested by a team of police operatives in front of his shop located at Yelwa Tsakani, a suburb of Bauchi metropolis at about 9pm on Thursday, 8th July, 2021 and taken to the Yelwa Division, where he was allegedly tortured to death.
The police through its Public Relations Officer, Ahmed Wakil, a Superintendent of Police, in a statement, claimed that a patrol team went to the area to arrest some suspects and saw Danladi lying in front of his shop “gasping for breath, reasonably suspected to have an asthma attack”, and he was rushed to the hospital where a medical doctor certified him dead.
Meanwhile, controversy surrounded the autopsy conducted on Danladi as his family expressed shock that the police denied their request for an independent autopsy but went ahead to do same without their knowledge.
Counsel to the family, Shipi Rabo, had said that he wrote to the Commissioner of Police, Bauchi State Command on July 11th, 2021 and copied relevant security agencies including the DPO, Yelwa Division where the incident happened but served them with the letter the next day, July 12th, demanding the release of the corpse within 24 hours for an independent autopsy.
According to him, there was no reply but instead, the DPO of Yelwa Division called and intimated him that the Police will conduct an autopsy and they required the presence of his clients and their doctor to serve as observers.
He told the DPO that he had written to the Commissioner of Police and was expecting a reply from him to allow the family conduct the independent autopsy.
Rabo said: “After we spoke, he then sent me a letter around 1.00pm intimating me that they will conduct an autopsy by 3.00pm that same day, just an interval of two hours. I then called him (DPO) and told him to wait because we are still waiting for the approval of our letter from the CP because it was him we wrote to and not the DPO.
“I got a reply through my email on Tuesday, July 13th through my email at about 8.00am even though the letter was dated 12th July, 2021, saying that I should provide a pathologist to come and witness the autopsy they will conduct without them specifying the date and time when that will be done.
“This suggested to me that they did not approve my application to conduct an independent autopsy. We felt that they won’t be fair to us and that was why we decline their invitation.
“But unknowing to us, they conducted the autopsy the previous day, Monday at the same 3pm that they said to us in their letter, despite that we told them to wait until we hear from the CP whom we had written to. They did not wait for us to receive the CP’s reply which later came the next day, Tuesday.
When our correspondent contacted the Police Public Relations Officer, Bauchi State Command, Ahmed Wakil, to react to the allegation, he simply said: “We served them a letter for the autopsy which had date and time. Wait till Saturday (July, 17th) for the result of the autopsy.”
But checks by our correspondent reveals that over one month after the autopsy was conducted by the police, they are yet to make the result public or give same to the deceased’s family.
Speaking with our correspondent, Rabo, the counsel representing the family of late Dauda Danladi, said that as of August 12th, the result has not yet been given to the family.
“They promised that they will send us the result of the autopsy, but up to now, we have not received the result and today, is August 12th, exactly one month after they did the autopsy.
“But that will not deter us from going on with our action in order to get justice,” he said.
Asked if the police are supposed to take this long to release the result of the autopsy, he said: “Initially, we wanted to conduct an independent autopsy on the deceased, it was not our desire that the police should conduct it being that they are parties to the case and we are suspecting them to have a hand in the death of Dauda Danladi.
“So, we wanted to do it independently but we thought that even though they refused allowing us to do the autopsy, at least, for the sake of courtesy, they will send us a copy of the result. But up to now, we have not heard anything from them.”
Wakil, when contacted for reaction said the family has not written to the Police requesting for the release of the result to them.
He said: “It’s not something I can say much about but I don’t know if they have requested for it (autopsy result).”
Asked if the family is supposed to request for the result before it is given to them, he said: “Yes, of course, they are supposed to write requesting for the result of the autopsy, we would have given it to them. If we had been the ones pushing to give them, they will think as if we have a different motive.”
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