Until a group, Behind Bars Human Rights Foundation, raised an alarm that officers of the Intelligence Response Team, IRT, in Owerri, Imo State, arrested a young lady and turned her into a maid in their custody, Okolie’s family members had searched for her in hospitals and mortuaries but the search yielded no positive result.
The group stated that the 21-year-old lady, Glory Okolie, sat for the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exam on June 17, and was picked up on the same day.
It was a young man who was released from IRT custody that informed the Okolies he saw the lady washing and cooking for the officers.
Director-General of Behind Bars Human Rights Foundation, Harrison Gwamnishu Gwamnishu who said efforts of the family members to secure Glory’s bail proved abortive later revealed that she had been taken to Abuja as a member of the Indigenous People of Biafra/ Eastern Security Network.
A Federal High Court in Abuja would later award N60 million in punitive and general damages to Glory Okolie against the Nigeria Police for her 150 days detention on bogus allegations of spying for the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The Commissioner of Police in Enugu State, Ahmed Ammani, has ordered the investigation of an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) over the alleged rape of a teenager in custody. The ASP is serving at the Awgu Police Division in the state.
Mr. Ammani ordered the state Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department to conduct a thorough investigation and submit “actionable findings” on the allegation. The victim, a 17-year-old girl was being detained at the police facility.
During a press conference held in Abuja on Thursday, May 2, 2019, seven women who were convicted by a mobile court for prostitution narrated how they were unfairly arrested, assaulted, and even raped by law enforcement officers. They all spoke anonymously with their backs turned to the press. One of them told journalists how she was arrested while attending a birthday party in a hotel and was later compelled to plead guilty of prostitution before the court.
But it does appear that there is a widespread sickening conspiracy against females by male police officers with an officer laying down his penis on a female sergeant’s desk.
In an article— ‘He placed his penis on her desk’: Avalanche of damning police behaviour exposed — Cloe Read in Brisbane Times of 5 October, 2022, tells an interesting story.
A Queensland police officer put his penis on a female sergeant’s desk, and another threatened to rape his female colleague.
A senior constable said his female boss was a “c—” and told colleagues if she did not give him the job he wanted, he would “punch her in the c—” .
Another officer was the subject of 80 allegations by female officers, including nine sexual assaults.
One male officer repeatedly harassed a female colleague by sending her unsolicited photos of his penis and a video of him masturbating, while requesting sex from her.
Ruth O’Gorman, counsel assisting, called the avalanche of incidents “concerning”.
They were shocking, lewd and damning.
And as the minutes passed, the evidence continued to pile up.
The inquiry into police responses to domestic violence – to which Commissioner Katarina Carroll was recalled to give evidence – was told on Wednesday that the Queensland Police Service received more than 1600 complaints between 2020 and 2022 about bullying and harassment, including incidents relating to misogyny, sexism and homophobic behaviour.
In submissions to the inquiry, many women said they had a deep fear of reporting the behaviour as they would be called “a dog” and their career would be ruined.
Of the officer who sent photos of his penis and the masturbation video, O’Gorman told the inquiry: “On one occasion whilst at work, he approached that female sergeant with his penis protruding out from his jeans.
“He asked if he should attend a meeting with the inspector in that way and then feigned getting his penis stuck in the drawer of a filing cabinet.
“[He] then placed it on her desk in front of her – he placed his penis on her desk.”
That matter proceeded to a disciplinary hearing and the allegations were substantiated. The officer was demoted in rank to senior constable for 12 months.
But the female officer, who did not make the complaint about what happened to her, was also disciplined by the police service.
“She now has a disciplinary history on her record because this man gets his penis out in front of her at work and subjects her to other sexual conduct, which she doesn’t complain about. I think we’ve agreed now that there are many good reasons why women might not [report such events],” O’Gorman said.
When it was suggested by O’Gorman that female officers were “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” in regard to making complaints, Carroll said it was wrong that the female officer had been reprimanded.
Throughout the hearing, Carroll condemned the behaviour of each of the numerous incidents raised.
It comes as the QPS continues to refuse to release the results of an internal survey showing the extent of its cultural problems.
At a previous appearance at the inquiry, Carroll was asked about the survey.
Brisbane Times also asked the QPS under right to information laws for the results of the survey, but it refused, partly out of concerns that officers did not know their answers would be made public.
The inquiry heard one officer also called others “towel heads” and “Osama”, sent pornographic material to colleagues, and pinned an image of a woman in swimwear on station fridges with the caption “tap and go”. That officer was promoted to another station, where he was in charge of more staff.
In another case, a detective senior sergeant – the subject of 80 allegations by 26 staff members, including nine sexual assaults and one attempted sexual assault – touched the breasts of a female colleague and followed another into a toilet and winked, saying he was in there “for a blowjob”.
Another officer threatened to break into a woman’s home and rape her after she rejected his advances.
His actions were not reported, despite the behaviour being well known by other officers.
Carroll said she was disappointed that management had not appropriately dealt with several officers, including only handling the allegations under local managerial resolutions, which could involve a basic conversation with a superior about behaviour.
She admitted that on many occasions, the female officers “should have been treated better”.
The inquiry continues this week, with police union president Ian Leavers called to give evidence.
