A graduate of University of Uyo is said to have been tortured to death in the police custody, human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong alleged.
Kubiat Isaac Akpan who died in a police cell in Akwa Ibom State was awaiting National Youth Service Corps, NYSC call.
Akpan, popularly called Icon by friends, was a fitness enthusiast and the only son of his parents who was waiting to be called up for NYSC.
He was allegedly arrested by the Nigerian police, B division Ewet Housing Estate, Akwa Ibom, on Sunday, August 29, and accused of robbery.
Mr. Inibehe Effiong who is a lawyer to deceased family tweeted Monday, September 6: “I spent the larger part of today witnessing the autopsy on the body of Kubiat Isaac Akpan, a fresh graduate of University of Uyo and only son of his parents who was tortured to death by rogue policemen on Sunday 29th August 2021. #JusticeForKubiat Sad!”
The autopsy was ordered by the state commissioner of Police, Mr Andrew Amiengheme, amid controversy surrounding the cause of Isaac’s death while in detention.
Effiong said witnessing the autopsy, along with family members of the deceased, was a horrifying experience.
He said: “He died from torture. The pathologist has finished the process and he has addressed us. It’s just for him to submit his report. He has told us what happened. He opened up the body and I saw everything with my eyes. He had an injury in the brain.
“You can see that he was tortured to death. It’s so terrible. I have never witnessed that in my life. There was nothing in his body that was not brought out; nothing was left. There was no way he could have survived.
“They tortured the young man to death and it is not only one police officer that did it, of course, but it was also a team of officers; they are trying to hide the others.”