Police detain teenager ‘by proxy’ for three days in Kwara

Anger is mounting in the Arandun area of Kwara State after videos circulating on social media showed residents storming a police station to demand the release of a sixteen-year-old girl allegedly held in detention for over three days in connection with an offence she did not commit.

The footage, posted by the TikTok account #oba_adebayo_13, captured crowds gathered at the station demanding the teenager either be released or charged to court, raising fresh concerns about the unlawful practice of arrest by proxy — where family members are detained in place of a suspect who cannot be found.

The girl’s mother, speaking in Yoruba in one of the videos, recounted how the ordeal began after her other child — the original suspect — could not be reached by police.

“My child did something wrong and the police came to arrest me after all efforts to reach the child proved abortive. I was later released after three days, after paying for bail,” she said.

“After one week, they came to pick up my other daughter of sixteen years old, and she has been in detention for three days.”

The mother’s account suggests police detained two different family members — first her, then her teenage daughter — as substitutes for the suspect they could not locate, a practice widely condemned as both illegal and inhumane.

Efforts to obtain a response from the Kwara State Police Command were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.

The incident has reignited public debate over arrest by proxy in Nigeria, a practice the Nigeria Police Force has previously described as unacceptable and condemned in official statements, even as allegations of its continued use by officers persist across the country.