Eight South African police officers are due to appear in Vanderbijlpark Magistrate’s Court today for the alleged torture and murder of a Nigerian, Ibrahim Olamilekan Badmus.

Ms Catherine Tenteza, Ms Gerhard Der-Walt, Mr Nkosinathi Ngwenya, Mr Aaron Arends, Mr Nomkhosi Khoza, Mr. Emmanuel Ngwane, Mr Msebenzi Mkhuma and Mr Joseph Mamasela were arrested last Friday by South Africa’s Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID).

A statement by Nigeria’s Consul General in Johannesburg, Godwin Adama, on Sunday, said Badmus, 25, a native of Ibadan, Oyo State was allegedly killed when the officers interrogated and suffocated him on Oct. 10, 2017, in Vanderbijlpark.

Adama commended the IPID who he said assured of a thorough investigation and they had kept to their word.

“It will set a new standard in prosecution of cases involving Nigerians in South Africa. It will also send a strong message out,” he said.

He also expressed hope that the accused would be convicted to serve as a deterrence to others.

IPID spokesperson Moses Dlamini had said that the accused claimed that they had found drugs on the deceased.

He however said the claim was a false story to cover up the torture and murder of the deceased.

“There was a huge outcry from the Nigerian community when the death was discovered. At the time, the police also alleged that they were attacked by ‘drug dealers’,” he said.

Dlamini said IPID investigators had probed the matter amid a lot of “hostility” from some members of the South African Police Service.

He said two pathologists who conducted the post-mortem confirmed that the deceased had indeed been tortured.

•Sourced from Daily Trust report

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