SAfrican police raid property of Nigerian suspect
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}South African police raided apartments linked to a Nigerian man facing terrorism charges in South Africa, killing one tenant and wounding another person, the properties' owner said Monday.
Azuka Okah, who owns the apartments, said she believed the raid was linked to her husband Henry Okah, who has been detained in a South African prison over suspicions he was involved in car bombings in Nigeria in October.
She said witnesses told her police searched one apartment on Saturday and handcuffed tenant Joseph Uzo, beat him with metal pots and pans and dunked his head in water. Police brought Uzo to the second apartment, smothering him with a plastic bag and assaulting the girlfriend of the second tenant, she said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"They raided my house thinking they'd get guns and bombs and they didn't get any, so maybe they decided to start raiding all the properties," Azuka Okah told the Associated Press on Monday.
Police were searching for illegal drugs and made one arrest, said Tiyani Sambo, spokesman for the South African government agency that probes complaints of police misconduct. Investigators are looking into how the tenant died, Sambo said.
Sambo said he could give no other details because the investigation was not yet complete.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"All that is known at this stage are just allegations," he said.
He said investigators were taking statements from witnesses and hoped to interview a man arrested during the raid. He said investigators also were awaiting a report from the coroner who was expected to complete a post-mortem examination later Monday.