Defendant Details Loss of Both Eyes During Custody in SCID Torture Allegations

A Minna High Court was moved to tears on Friday after a defendant in a long‑running homicide trial described how he allegedly lost both eyes during torture by operatives of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) of the Niger State Police Command.

The defendant, Idris Mohammed, told Justice Mikhail Abdullahi of High Court II, Minna, during cross‑examination by his counsel, Olusegun Ogunbanwo (Esq.), that he was already serving a jail term at the Minna Correctional Facility when he was allegedly taken by plain‑clothes SCID operatives to the police headquarters for interrogation.

Mohammed said he was handcuffed, his legs chained together, and suspended before being beaten in an attempt to force a confession to an offence he insisted he knew nothing about.

“I was taken to the prison by a Shariah Court in Sabon‑Titi, Tunga, Minna. While in prison, some plain‑clothes operatives came and took me to the SCID office, where I was tortured. As a result of the torture, I lost my two eyes,” he told the court through an interpreter.

Mohammed is standing trial alongside three others over allegations of culpable homicide punishable by death.

They were arraigned in August 2015 by the Office of the Attorney General of Niger State over the alleged killing of an unknown person whose body was reportedly found in the Lapai/Gbari area along Talba’s farm in Minna.

The defendants denied involvement in the crime, insisting they neither committed the offence nor knew the alleged victim, and said their confessions were allegedly obtained under torture.

Justice Abdullahi adjourned the case to 8 June 2026 for further hearing.