POLICE in Ogun State face the prospect of being tried for manslaughter after a 37-year-old Risikat Bamidele lost her nine-week-old pregnancy while being manhandled in their custody in Abeokuta the state capital.

Risikat, who is currently receiving treatment at the State Hospital, Ijaiye, was said to have been battered because she made a call inside the Kemta Police station, angering the divisional police officer. She had been to the police station to secure the release of her detained husband and while there decided to make calls to some family members.

Apparently, her decision to make calls infuriated the police boss who ordered the seizure of Risikat's mobile phone. When she refused to release the phone, the police boss allegedly ordered his men to deal with her and as they dealt her blows, she started bleeding.

Three days later, at her place of work in the Catholic Comprehensive High School, Onikolobo, Abeokuta, Risikat suddenly collapsed following another round of bleeding and had to be rushed to hospital. Speaking on her hospital bed, she alleged that the policemen slapped her several times before she was pushed behind the counter.

‪Risikat added: "When I got to the police station, my husband gave me his phone that I should call his brother. While I was calling his brother, I saw one policeman, I did not know he was the divisional police officer (DPO), who told me that I was stupid for making calls in the police environment around after eight o’clock.

‪”He later called a policeman to arrest me and I was harassed, pushed and brutalised. My husband saw what they were doing to me and he was telling them, that I was pregnant and was begging them not to touch me."

According to Risikat, the DPO turned deaf ears to their pleas‪ and they seized her phone so she could not call anybody. However, later that night, she started suffering from stomach pains but when she alerted the police man at the counter he said there is nothing he can do.

Ogun State Police Command spokesman Muyiwa Adejobi, said he was not aware of the incident but added that the police commissioner would be interested in the matter if the command is notified by the affected family. He said the woman's family should inform the police about the issue and they will take it up from there.