Growing up, I often wondered who amongst the mischievous and vile Nigerian police officers came up with the idea of using a hot pressing iron to torture cell inmates and crime suspects. The best self-explanation I came up with is that, one of these randy men after ironing his uniform or sunday clothes, most likely left it behind plugged and somebody else thought it would be a great idea to plug it in and test it on the flesh of uncooperative suspects.
The idea may have been debunked at first by the superior officers, but God bless the soul of the first person to receive divine heat on his already sweaty back. He sang like a bird and ratted out all of his accomplices, associates, dealers, beneficiaries and even family members who he would have shared the spoils from his crime loots with. Beatings apparently had no effect any longer and these officers must have felt like gods or the first people to make fire by this minute achievement.
Contracts were awarded for the procurement of pressing irons to be delivered nationwide to all police stations, turns out anyway that older irons that had be used over the years , those ones you had to twist the wires to push into a socket, exactly… those ones with the hell hot effect. Suspects will immediately scream whenever the ’’get the old iron’ phrase was mentioned. Plot twist: the effect of that iron could not be avoided so even when you gave out of the details in your confession, you still had to receive the metallic plate on either the side of your thigh, chest area or best served on your lower back hot and spicy.
Of course it came with some occupational hazards like the officers getting shocked by the electricity from the exposed cords or the smell of crisp like suya, the heat! Note that this torture had to be done in a low light room without any ventilation or fan to cool the steaming heat from the iron.
Mind you, this writing for humour sake, it is only a question as to why this inhumane behaviour is inflicted by the police force. done to us Nigerians. A suspect is innocent of any crimes until proven guilty, nothing justifies this demonic approach. A lot of innocent individuals possibly confessed to crimes they didn’t commit mainly because of the steaming effect of the Philip iron on their bare buttocks and backs.
A dear friend of mine was arrested in 2014 and accused of raping a girl because the father had disapproved of the relationship and had warned him severally to stay away from his daughter. He had been beaten during interrogation but kept on standing up for his innocence. Then on another day, the officer had said ‘shey you no wan talk abi, you go sing for us today.’ My friend didn’t grasp this phrase until minutes after he felt the heat come into the room, followed by the sudden kiss of the iron on his back. He explained to me that his mind, body and soul had tried to escape first but his scream crossed the line first. Oh! he sang and kept on singing with tears and pleas to a crime he did not commit or ever think of.
I really do hope this practice has been banned or even criminalised, because even if it was thought to be a great idea to get stubborn people to confess, I am most certain that innocent people also paid the price for it.
