Police strip eight-month-old pregnant woman naked

Owoseni orders arrest of culprits
Three ‘power-drunk’ policemen attached to the Satellite police division, who, on July 19, 2015, allegedly assaulted and stripped naked an eight-month-old pregnant woman, identified as Chika Elekwachi, has been arrested.  

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, ordered the arrest of the three policemen, who are now facing police disciplinary procedures.   Elekwachi was manhandled by the policemen for what they described as an ‘attempt to resist arrest.’     

She was allegedly beaten up and stripped naked before she was dragged   to the police station amidst plea that she was pregnant. She was later rushed to Safe Hands Hospital, Ojo Road, Lagos when she slumped.    

The Guardian gathered that the policemen on duty including the Divisional Crime Officer (DCO) insisted that she was pretending and seeking attention when they saw her fall and scream.  

The arrested policemen had deceived the Lagos State Police authority peddling all sorts of lies against her.    Their attempt to cover-up the incident was ridiculed when Elekwachi, who had been complaining against their ill treatment, started bleeding.   

She was immediately rushed into the operating theatre of the hospital and had her baby delivered prematurely.   The unidentified policemen, who participated in the arrest of the woman, are being detained at the Satellite Police Division in Ojo.  

Elekwachi who was in the hospital recalled that at about 8pm on that Sunday, she left two of her kids at home and headed to a shop at Agboju to buy things for the house.   “I was on my way when I noticed a bus coming from my back.

They double-crossed me and one of them came out, and pointed the gun at me, shouting that I should park my car or they will fire me. When I discovered that they were policemen, I tried to explain to them that I wanted to park my car, so that I can enter the shop. “This incident happened at Pako bus stop along Ojo road, where there were so many tankers and lorries parked indiscriminately.  

I begged one of the policemen on black T-Shirt to allow me go as I was pregnant, the next thing, he called me a prostitute.  I was angry and reminded him that I am a married woman with two kids. I told him that if he dares to call me a prostitute again, I would not take it lightly with him. The policeman dragged me down from the car, even as passerby and my friend were begging him to let me go.  

In that state, I was shouting: ‘Please help me o! Please help me o! I am not a thief! I am not a thief!’ and they tore my trousers. I was not putting on any pant and I was naked. They were dragging me that I must enter their vehicle but I refused. They dragged me on the road but I refused and insisted that I must use my vehicle to go to their station. My legs were bruised and my stomach was bruised also.”

The woman said, amidst tears. She continued: “When all effort to convince them to let her go failed;” she said was bundled into the car while one of the policemen allegedly kept threatening that he would kill her even with the pregnancy.   “On getting to the police station, I pleaded with them to allow me to borrow a cloth from the shop. 

I was begging them so I would meet a woman nearby to lend me wrapper because I was naked. People around were asking me what happened even some men that were drinking in a drinking joint nearby asked me the same question and I just replied them in Igbo that: “ I am not a thief o! That it was the police that did this to me” because with the way I was treated, one could mistake me for a thief.

I bite one of the police on his back because they were holding me.   “I then entered one supermarket near the station, I met a Yoruba woman inside and asked her for some wrapper to cover myself, and she told me she had only one wrapper that she was putting on, so she gave me this gown.

My phone was in my vehicle and I told the police officers that they should allow me call my people to inform them that I was in the station, but they refused, saying that I must enter the cell.    “I pleaded with people around and they refused to give me their phone because they thought I was a mad woman with the way I dressed.

They were just looking at me. I then saw a young girl and spoke Igbo to her that I was not a thief that she should please give me her phone to make a call to my people. She gave me her phone. I called my sister whose number I could remember. I called her and told her what was happening. She came with her husband that night and met me at the police station.

So, they were asking what happened but her husband said we had to find those who did this and we went into the police station. So, as we entered, the DCO, one yellow man came out and told us to explain what happened over the counter so as I was talking, I felt dizzy and fainted,” she narrated.    

At the hospital, where Elekwachi was taken, the doctor on duty, Okoawo Innocent, who spoke on behalf of the hospital management said that Chika was rushed into the hospital unconscious.   He said all necessary tests were carried out by the doctor who was on duty and it showed that the baby was fine. He, however, said she would be kept under observation.  

Chika started bleeding and to save her life and that of the baby, she was wheeled into the theatre for Dilatation and Curettage (D and C).   Confirming the arrest, the Lagos State Police Command spokesman, Kenneth Nwosu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, gave assurance that investigation was going to confirm what actually transpired.

He also confirmed that the suspected officers, who participated in the ill treatment off the woman, had been arrested and if found guilty would be prosecuted according to the law guiding the Police Force.