The Minna High Court Number two,was on Wednesday thrown into emotional mood,as a defendant standing trial before the court narrated how he lost his two eyes to torture by men of the State criminal investigation Department (SCID), of the Niger State Police Command.
Idris Mohammed, was narrating his ordeal before Justice Mikhail Abdullahi of the Minna High Court number two that he was already serving a jail term in Minna Correctional facility when some plain clothe operatives from the SCID came to pick him to the State Police headquarters in Minna.
Narrating his ordeal under cross examination by his defence counsel,Olusegun Ogunbanwo Esq. Idris Mohammed told the court, that he was taken to the State CID headquarters in Minna where he was subjected to all manner of torture to admit an offence he never committed.
According to Idris Mohammed, he was handcuffed and two of his legs were chained together and hanged to the ceiling before he was given the beating of his life by men of the SCID for him to confess to an offence he did not know anything about.
Idris who was speaking through an interpreter from Nupe to English, further told the court that with the severe State of the torture, he stood his ground that he will not admmit to an offence he did not know anything about.
“ I was taken to the prison by a Shariah Court in Sabon titi area of Tunga in Minna. While in the prison for another offence,when some plain clothes operatives came to pick me up at the SCID office where I'm subjected to severe torture as a result of the torture I lost my two eyes” he told the court.
Idris Mohammed was led to the dock by one of the inmates who is also standing trial along with him on an offence of culpable homicide punishable by death.
He was arraigned before the court along with three other defendants some time in August,2015 for alleged culpable homicide by the office of the Attorney General of Niger State.
They were alleged to have caused the death of a particular unknown person whose corpse was discovered in the Lapai Gbari area along Talba’s Farm in Minna some time in 2015.
The four defendants were then remanded in Minna old custodial facility in the past eleven years on awaiting trials for the allegation of culpable homicide punishable by death which according to them they did not commit the said offence neither do they even know the alleged deceased person.
Under re-cross examination,the defendants claimed to have been subjected to all forms of torture “ for them to admmit to the crime which we don't know anything about”
After all their submissions before the court, Justice Mikhail Abdullahi then adjourned the case to 8th June,2026 for further hearing.
