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.”
