Man sets himself ablaze to protest police corruption

A certain Alhadji Hamadou Saidou of Maroua is reported to have set himself ablaze after police requested that he paid a bribe of 200,000FCFA to have his daughter released from the police custody.

His daughter, Maou-Za, was being held in custody after a fight with a pregnant friend. The fight resulted in the friend’s loss of her three months old pregnancy.

Maoua-Za was arrested and detained at the Maroua judicial police station on November 2. The case was assigned to one officer Elise Ngoike. In an attempt to solve the matter between the families of Maoua-Za and her friend, the police officer proposed an amicable settlement whereby the victim was going to be paid 500,000FCFA.

Maoua-Za’s father, Alhadji Hamadou and husband, Sadjo, we gathered, both raised the money and paid to get her freed.

L’Oeil du Sahel, a French language newspaper reported that instead of setting her free, another police officer of the precinct requested Alhadji Hamadou pay 200,000FCFA more as ‘cola nut money’ for the unit head, police commissioner Asleme Moapeum.

Stunned at the request and equally unable to get the funds, Hamadou preferred to die than succumb to the corruption. Family members said he wondered how they could be asking for 200,000FCFA after he and his son-in-law had done the best they could to raise the 500,000FCFA to compensate the complainant in his daughter’s case.

He said that there was no way he was going to raise the amount of money the police were demanding and so set himself ablaze in public to protest police corruption.

He was rushed to the West Africa Medical Center in Meskine in the wee hours of November 8, where he later died. The medics declared he was killed by severe burns.

His daughter was released immediately after the police learnt of his death. While an investigation is said to be on-going to determine the real cause of the suicide, family members have said that Hamadou had no problems before the encounter with the judicial police.