20th November, 2014
Jethro Ibileke/Benin
Three female police officers attached to Oregbeni Police Division in Benin, Edo State, southern Nigeria, were Tuesday beaten blue black and stripped naked.
The police officers were said to have gone to arrest a tenant at Oregbeni Quarters, Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area in Benin metropolis when they were humiliated.
The victims are currently receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital.
P.M.NEWS gathered that the police women were invited by a landlady in the area to arrest one of her tenants when a fracas ensued.
Trouble started when the tenant insisted on taking her bath before going to the police station, a request said to have been turned down by the police officers.
The situation degenerated into an argument, and in the ensuing fracas, other residents in the area joined the tenant to beat up the officers and stripped them naked.
The landlady whose name was given as Mrs. Okebuse, confirmed that she invited the police because she had given the tenants quit notice.
“When the police came to make arrest, they started fighting the police. I ran for my life and hid at the other compound,” she said.
An eyewitness said “the landlady is in the habit of harassing and intimidating her tenants with police. The woman was taking her bath and police refused to allow the woman take her bath.”
The State Police Commissioner, Foluso Adebanjo, who confirmed the incident, expressed disappointment over the attack, adding that the police would not take it lightly.
Adebanjo said the attackers would be made to face the full wrath of the law and that suspects arrested have already been charged to court.