Chiemelie Ezeobi
In another case of severe police brutality, some policemen attached to the Onipanu Division of the Lagos State Police Command yesterday assaulted a 42-year-old lawyer, Sunday Elimihe, which landed him in the hospital with a partially blind eye.
Elimihe while narrating the incident from his hospital bed at Shomolu General Hospital, said asides being beaten by the drunk policemen, he was also stripped of the N150,000 in his vehicle’s pidgin hole.
He said: “On my way coming from Lekki where I went to check a property with my client, I decided to use the Onipanu police station road, by Apata.
“Immediately I drove into the street close to the station, one Corporal Alonge stopped me, demanded for my vehicle particulars. I gave them to him, then he demanded for my driver’s license, which I also gave him.
“When he discovered I did not commit any offence, he asked for my tinted glass permit which I gave him.
“He told me I was using a forged tinted glass permit. I told him I could not have forged a police document as a lawyer. He became furious and said he was going to arrest me.
“He jumped into my vehicle and insisted I must give him N1,000 to bail myself. I said I was not going to give him any money since I have not committed any offence.
“He pounced on me and cocked his gun threatening to shoot me if I make a move. Another policewoman who sighted us came and dragged the gun from him.
“The policeman after being disarmed descended on me and gave me the beating of my life. He pushed me into the cell and another policeman came inside the cell, locked up the cell and beat me for 30minutes.
“I see this as intimidation of the highest order, not because I am a lawyer, but because I am an average Nigerian. I was humiliated like a common criminal.
“This is oppression. One of my eyes is partially blind. I have been vomiting blood since yesterday. It was the intervention of a good policeman in the station who warned them not to kill me. I would have been dead by now.”
The victim called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the state Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, to come to the aid of innocent Nigerians are daily being brutalised by policemen for no just cause.
Already, the state Commissioner of police, Fatai Owoseni, was said to have summoned the police officers involved for questioning at the command headquarters.
