OYO POLICE CLARIFY CASE INVOLVING STUDENT WHO DIED AFTER RELEASE

The Oyo State Police Command has denied reports that it arrested and prosecuted a student, Al-Amin Mohammed, over an outstanding ₦8,000 debt before his death by suicide. The command said Mohammed was instead charged with assault and malicious damage following an incident involving a female Point-of-Sale operator and damage to an Airtel SIM registration machine valued at ₦177,000. The clarification came after reports linked the 30-year-old student’s arrest, detention and subsequent death to a dispute over the unpaid debt.

According to the police, Mohammed had approached the POS operator to collect ₦23,000 in cash with the intention of transferring the same amount through a POS transaction. The command said he collected the money but left without making the transfer or returning the full amount, and later refunded ₦15,000, leaving ₦8,000 outstanding. The operator subsequently kept his mobile phone pending repayment of the balance. Police alleged that Mohammed later went to the complainant’s residence on September 8, 2026, at about 10pm, where he assaulted her and damaged her Airtel SIM registration machine.

The command said members of the community initially attempted to settle the matter but were unsuccessful, after which vigilantes brought Mohammed and the complainant to the police station. Police officers said they also attempted to resolve the dispute amicably, but the complainant insisted on pursuing the matter in court. Following investigation, the command maintained that the available evidence supported charges of assault and malicious damage rather than a criminal charge over the outstanding ₦8,000. The police stressed that the debt was part of the background to the dispute but was not the basis of the criminal proceedings.

The police further explained that Mohammed was granted bail after being arraigned in court but remained at the Agodi Correctional Centre because he was initially unable to fulfil the bail conditions. The command said his continued custody was therefore a consequence of the court-imposed bail conditions and not a decision by the police to detain him because he could not repay the ₦8,000. He was eventually released after the conditions were met. Mohammed died on September 17, three days after his release, after reportedly ingesting rat poison at his residence in Ibadan.

The family has given a different account of the events, saying Mohammed had been distressed by his detention and prosecution and maintained that he had only gone to retrieve his phone after it was seized over the debt. His mother also alleged that he had complained about being taken to court over the dispute and became withdrawn after returning home. The police, however, said it would be inappropriate to establish a direct link between the criminal case and his death without verified evidence, stressing that the circumstances surrounding his death should be determined through appropriate investigation rather than assumptions or an incomplete account.