A teenage schoolboy in Adamawa State, Abdullahi Abba, has died after alleged torture by operatives of a security taskforce over a stolen phone.
The 17-year-old SSS 2 student was allegedly manhandled by members of Operation Farauta, a taskforce comprising military and police personnel mandated to check kidnapping and robbery activities around the state.
Abdullahi Abba was arrested last Saturday, August 5, after a neighbour complained to the taskforce over a missing phone.
The taskforce allegedly seized him, beat him till he lost consciousness, and he was taken to hospital.
A lawyer to the family, Abubakar Diram, who took the matter up, said Abdullahi died after four days in a coma.
According to the lawyer, a mobile phone was stolen in the neighbourhood and a boy claimed that he took the phone and gave it to Abdullahi.
He said Abdullahi swore that he knew nothing about the phone, “but he was tortured until he became unconscious and consequently died.”
He said Abdullahi died earlier in the day, Wednesday, at the intensive care unit of the Modibbo Adama University Teaching Hospital, Yola, where he had been receiving medical attention.
The family lawyer recalled that he had on August 7 filed a petition to the Adamawa State Commissioner of Police seeking justice for Abdullahi who was still unconscious.
Newspot reports that phone theft or forceful snatching from owners, most of the time in broad day light, is a rampant crime in Adamawa State, especially within the municipal Yola North, Yola South and Girei local government areas.
The culprits are, however, usually youths who never had western education and opt for crime as a means of livelihood.
Against rising anger over how young Abdullahi died, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Suleiman Nguroje, has assured that the matter is being investigated and all those found wanting would be punished.
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