Battering Of Okada Rider: Inspector, 6 Others In Trouble

An Inspector and six  other policemen attached to MAN Centre Police Station, Ikeja, Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, are in trouble for allegedly beating an okada rider, Mr. Cheta Chris, and injuring him on the head.

Chris alleged that on 24 May, 2012 at about 6:45 pm while he was discussing with one of his friends in front of an ice cream factory at Ikeja, the inspector and his team came in a police patrol vehicle and went inside the compound of the ice cream factory where he parked his motorcycle and  carried it. “I demanded to know why they impounded my motorcycle when I did not obstruct the traffic.”

He explained that the response he got from the police was that they are taking the motorcycle to their office. Chris said he told the police that they could not do so without letting him know his offence.

“Before I knew what was happening, they descended on me and started beating him like a common criminal,” he said.

The victim stated that when the policemen realised that he wouldn’t allow them take the motorcycle away, the inspector used the butt of his gun to hit him on the head and he collapsed, bleeding in the process wherein they took the motorcycle away.

According to Chris, when he recovered and discovered that N46,000 he collected that day as his contribution was gone, he immediately went to Area ‘F’ Police Command to lodged the  complaint and he was referred to MAN Centre Police Station but refused to go so as not to be beaten again. He said he decided to report the case to the office of Committee for the Defence of People’s Rights who took up the case and wrote a petition to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police.

The petition, P.M.NEWS learnt has since been approved by the Commissioner of Police and the provost has sent a signal to MAN Centre Police Station for the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, to produce the said inspector and his team who were duty on the day of the incident.

       —Yusuf Muhammed