Topic: Another case of police brutality in Lagos

If not for the fact that these people are always armed with guns, the best thing to do in this kind of situation and any time they kill an innocent citizen is to mob and kill them in retaliation.”

Those were the words of a Lagosian who witnessed the brutality a driver suffered in the hands of a policeman attached to the Gowon Estate Police Station, under Area “G” Command, Ogba on Friday night.

Perhaps the errant policeman has been humbled and now penitent as a result of his boss’ threat to “deal” with him if the victim dies, how he goes about his police duties after this incident is resolved will show his new approach to policing.

At about 7.30pm on Friday, five young men were in a mini bus with registration number XM 528 BDG, coming from Ikotun on the outskirts of the city and moving towards Iyana-Ipaja in Lagos.

The men, according to an eyewitness, were businessmen who were using the vehicle to supply yams to their customers, and they had just supplied a customer at Gowon Estate when they ran into policemen.

Despite persistent orders by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, that all police roadblocks and check points should be dismantled, some policemen still mounted a check point somewhere close to Egbeda Junction.

The eyewitness said he did not know what had transpired between the occupants of the vehicle and the policemen, but saw how one of the policemen beat the driver to a stupor.

One of the occupants of the vehicle told our correspondent that because of the darkness in the area, they did not immediately notice that policemen were stationed at that spot.

He said, “We had already passed them before we heard the shouts “stop there, stop,” and before the driver could bring the vehicle to a halt, one of them had jumped onto a motorcycle and started pursuing us.”

It was learnt that the policeman who pursued the vehicle caught up with it a few metres away from where it was flagged down.

He allegedly dragged the driver, who was identified simply as Idowu, out of the vehicle and began to beat and kick him with the butt of his rifle and his boots.

After the policeman allegedly hit the 27-year-old driver on the head with the gun, the man lost consciousness and collapsed.

When efforts to revive him proved abortive, sympathisers who initially prevented the policemen from zooming off the scene, assisted the security men to rush Idowu to a private clinic, Okiki Hospital at Iyana-Ipaja, where he lay unconscious for hours. He was said to have returned to life in the early hours of Saturday.

At about 10pm, the divisional police officer in charge of the errant policeman’s station, came to the hospital to assess the situation.

After being told what happened, the DPO asked other officers who accompanied him to the hospital to immediately disarm the policeman.

He asked him to state what happened and the policeman said he thought that the men had Indian hemp in their vehicle, that was why he pursued them.

After the DPO chided his errant “boy” for unprofessional conduct, he was said to have asked him, “Even if they were carrying hemp, must you beat anybody? And by the way, did you lose your own Indian hemp that you were searching for?”

“Now, let me assure you, if this man dies, I will make sure I kill you back,” the police officer was quoted as telling his errant policeman in anger.

On Saturday morning when our correspondent visited the hospital, Idowu had regained his consciousness while a delegation from the police station was there to wish him quick recovery.

A visitor to the hospital, who was later told what happened to the young man, said to our correspondent, “That is how these policemen behave everywhere. If this man had died now, that would have been a great loss to members of his family.”

When contacted, the spokesman for the police in the state, Mr. Frank Mba, confirmed the incident.

He said, “The policeman has been arrested and he is to face orderly room trial. The driver was discharged yesterday (Saturday) and he has gone back to Ibadan.”

dat policeman deserves enough beatn even much more than he gave to the bus driver