Ilorin Horror Camp: I didn’t bath for 4months, incarcerated for 259 days – Victim

By Ahmed Ajikobi

Victims   rescued by the police in Kwara State from an illegal
rehabilitation centre at Gaa Odota area of Ilorin,  have opened up on
their  ordeal as inmates of the ‘detention camp.
Speaking to  Pilot Crime, one of the victims, Isiaka Lukman  of Ita
-Merin area of Ilorin,  said his experience is best described as
horrible.
Lukuman who told our reporter that he was a commercial tricycle
operator before his incarceration at the rehabilitation centre,
alleged that inmates were subjected to inhuman treatment by the
operators.
The victim said that he was lured to the centre by his parents on the
pretext of taking him to where he could purchase a tricycle.
According to him, his parents handed him over to the operators on the
grounds that he was stubborn.
” My parents promised to get me a new tricycle and they asked me to
accompany them to  where it would be purchased.
” I followed them not knowing that they were taking me to Ile Kewu
(Arabic centre). On getting there, the  operators started beating me
telling me to confess my membership of secret confraternity.
“My parents told them that it is because I am stubborn that they
brought me to the centre and I was immediately sentenced to five years
of incarceration.”
The gaunt-looking inmate said he had been in the detention camp since
February and kept away in a room until he was rescued.
“Since February when I was incarcerated I have not seen the sun. We
were poorly fed. I have not bath in four months and my body has been
infested with skin diseases and my private part ravaged by rashes, ”
he lamented.
He said relatives  of the inmates were unaware of the horrid treatment
they were subjected to by operators of the centre.
“They will beat us if we  tell our relatives  about the situation and
living condition  in the centre.
” I was very happy when police came to our rescue. In fact I would
rather stay in a  preferred prison than in the centre.”he further
said.
Another victim who  hails from Osun State, Afeez Olaniyonu, said he
initially thought the place was an  Islamic school for learning.
“Initially I thought it was an Islamic school not knowing that it is a
torture centre. I was locked up and chained.”
According to him,  the inability of his parents to send him to school
to acquire Western education  made him to decide to enrol in an Arabic
centre.
Also speaking on his ordeal, 23-year-old Azeez  Ayatulahi blamed his
plight on his father who enrolled him at the centre.
“I was into hard drugs and smoke hemp therefore my father took me to
the centre for rehabilitation.
” I have been in that detention since June 4. I have spent four
months. I’m a student of University  of Ilorin. I started school in
2017 and I was in 200 level in studying mathematics when they took me
their.”
On his part, another victim, Abdulwahab Sodiq from Osun State said his
drug addiction made him become inmate of the centre.
Reacting to the development, son of the proprietor,  Olaide Owotutu
said all the allegations level against his father Shaikh Abdul Raheem
Owotutu were nothing but false.
He denied the maltreatment of the inmates, adding that the  centre was
established to train period in Arabic knowledge.
“For those that require rehabilitation  we pray and give them
prophetic medicine among others to stabilise them. All we do here is
good.
” My father who is currently in police detention is a blind person. He
can’t see anything; we are his eyes. He believes in prayers.
Owotutu alleged that  the police acted  on wrong information,  adding
that it was not their first visit to the place.
“They first came with the information that, we have underground cell
in our house, they checked around but could not find anything.
“What we do here is that we rehab sturbon people who smoke and take
hard drugs among others, those that run away from home, stealing among
others. And when they are brought here,  we pray and take  good care
of them until they return to  normal.”
While  speaking to newsmen on Thursday the state Commissioner of
Police, Kayode Egbetokun said his operatives storm the centre
following  intelligence report.
Egbetokun further said that, 108 victims were rescued and the matter
is currently undergoing investigation.
” I can assure members of the public that the person involved in this
will not go unpunished and will face wrath  of law if found guilty.