Victor Uwagba, a well-known cultural mediator in the Son Gotleu neighborhood, denounces that the agents arrested him because of his skin color when he returned from playing paddle tennis
“I felt a very discriminatory treatment for me skin color”. Victor Uwagba, an intercultural mediator well known in the neighborhood of son gotleu, has denounced a racist episode with the National Police happened last Tuesday. In this way, according to this Nigerian citizen, the agents detained him without offering any reason beyond the color of his skin when he was returning from play paddle tennis. “The police said, ‘blacks carry drugs in their pockets'”.
The events occurred on Tuesday around 12:00 noon in the Indalecio Prieto street (between El Rafal and Son Gotleu) when Uwagba returned from playing paddle tennis with the bicycle. According to testimony, a National Police car stopped abruptly in front of him and the agents quickly got out of the vehicle. “They assured me that I looked very much like someone they were looking for. They told me three times ‘Have you ever been arrested?’“, exposes the citizen, who was blocked before the situation.
It also details that at no time did they explain the reasons for the arrest, for which reason he warned them that this was not the correct way to proceed. Faced with this response, the Police examined all the documentation exhaustively, according to Uwagba.
“They started looking at everything, every single card, they were convinced they would find something. The truth is that I felt defenseless because of the way they treated me.” While they were checking his documentation, Uwagba complained that they made him take off his shoes and sit on the ground. “They told me ‘open your pocket, take off your shoes, socks and sit on the floor’. At that time I was very upset with the way they were searching me.”
Appearance of a witness
While the events were taking place, the complainant explains that a witness he knew saw the situation and asked the agents what was happening. “He talked to them and explained that I am a collaborator who works for the diversity of the neighborhood and I have never had a problem. The answer that the police gave him was the following: ‘we do this because people of color carry drugs in their pockets.’ Here I couldn’t contain myself anymore, what he just said was a lack of intercultural competence. I’m not a person of color, call me African if you don’t know what country I’m from, but don’t use such a derogatory term.” Finally, according to Uwagba, the police left, assuring that they were going to denounce him for disobedience to authority.”They told me ‘white people like me have been taught to call people like you people of colorIt is the softest thing we can tell you. Also, we are going to denounce you because you are getting very cool.
For his part, the Nigerian citizen has filed a complaint with the Duty Court for what he considers totally discriminatory treatment. “I have exposed the facts that occurred and I hope that through the information that the agent offered when he called the switchboard they can locate him. I saw a part of the car’s license plate and I also recorded it.” Despite what may happen with the complaint, Uwagba is very hurt by what he had to live with.
“I was so touched at that time that when I got home I couldn’t even eat. That a person can think like that is something very worrying.” However, the citizen does not want to blame the entire police force for racism either. “I am a person who has done a lot of personal work as a community mediator with the police and something like this has never happened to me. It’s not the uniform, it’s the person.”