A 33-year old breadwinner has allegedly been tortured to death by policemen attached to the Yelwa Division and a vigilante group in Bauchi State.

The deceased, Dauda Danladi, was reportedly arrested by a team of security men in front of his shop located in Yelwa Kagadama, a suburb of Bauchi metropolis about 9pm on Thursday.

He was said to have been taken to the Yelwa Division, where he was allegedly tortured to death.

An eyewitness, Liatu Nuhu, who sells Groundnut Milk and Rice Gruel close to the shop of the deceased told The PUNCH that the Police and the vigilante came in a commando-style and started arresting people indiscriminately.

“I was doing my business when, suddenly, the Police and some vigilante came, they were more than 10 in number and started arresting people. The DPO came down from the vehicle and directed them, “arrest him!” “Arrest him!”

“And that was how they arrested the boys playing snooker game, others who were chatting and the deceased who was standing in front of his shop. We kept telling them not to arrest him, we told them that he is our neighbour here and we know him to be someone of good character, why would they arrest him, but they still took him away.”

Nuhu further said, “Today (Friday) in the morning we went to the Police station around 7am, they told us to stay at a far distance and wait for the DPO to come to the office. So, I decided to go to my place of work.

“By 10.15am, I returned, only for me to see the deceased wife crying profusely. When I ask her what happened, she told me that her husband was dead.

“I was confused and I rushed into the station and confronted them reminding them that last night when they came to pick him, we tried to stop them telling them that he was an innocent man but they refused and see what has happened to him.”

Another eyewitness, Sheba Babangida, who sells akara (bean cake) close to the deceased shop, also corroborated what Liatu Nuhu, had narrated.

She said, “We were doing our business and we even chatted with him and laughed and he went into his shop and later came out. From nowhere, some policemen came and started arresting youths in the area. They started from the snooker spot to the deceased who charged phones in his shop.

“When they arrested him in front of his shop, we pleaded with them to release him but they refused and forcefully took him into the car they came with, and they were many, that was around 9pm.

“The next day, I couldn’t go to the station because I wasn’t feeling too well but someone came and told me that the man that was arrested last night is dead. I went and confirmed from one man selling meat close to where our shop is and he said it was true.”

She added that as soon as she heard it, she looked for his house and went there and confirmed that it was true.

When contacted, the Commissioner of Police, Bauchi State, Sylvester Alabi, told journalists on the phone that five people were arrested with a  revolver pistol in the area.

He said that two of them were later released because they were found innocent while the other two were still being held at the Police station.

“The deceased was not even part of them, he was about 200 meters ahead. He was gasping for breath in his business place and the Police assisted him to the hospital and then, he died.

“If Police had not assisted him to the hospital, people would have said they are bad people, Police now assisted, now na wahala (sic).

“I have told the PPRO to go to the media and tell people the correct version of the story,” he stated.

As of the time of filing this story, 7.30pm, the PPRO was yet to make any official statement.