A Lagos State resident who identified himself as Dauda Jimoh has narrated how he was brutalised, battered and detained by the Nigerian Policemen for speaking against the “illegal detention” of his friend’s car.
Speaking to SaharaReporters in a telephone conversation, Jimoh said that the incident occurred on Friday, 15th of December, 2023 at Saint Paul Street, in Lagos State. He said operatives of the Nigerian Police Force attached to Makinde Police Station stopped his friend’s car and seized the car keys without “any reasonable reason.”
He added that this made him and other concerned people to intervene in the matter. But the issue got complicated when the police claimed that Jimoh’s approach was rude and they decided to beat him and subsequently detained him for about an hour.
He said, “I came to visit my friend at Saint Paul Street just beside Makinde police station and we all departed before my friend called that the police stopped his car and we all went there to talk to the police. Meanwhile they had seized his car keys as we were arguing about the inappropriate act, that they were meant to just check his vehicle papers and let him go since the papers are valid, some policeman started beating me right in front of the station. They dragged me into the cell and locked me up.”
He continued, “It happened that when everybody wanted to depart, my friend drove us down to a food canteen where we got food and he was driving back home, so he drove through the Makinde police station. They stopped him there to check his papers, so when he was trying to get down from the vehicle so he could open the boot and show them what was in the boot and the papers; immediately he got down from the car, he made a mistake and didn’t remove his key. So the next thing they did was that one of the policemen removed his key immediately. So he asked them why.
“He told them, Why would you remove my key? Ask for my papers and I will show you my papers. I wanted to open the boot, show you the boot, before I came back, you removed my car key. This is 11pm in the night. Who are you to remove my key? Let me have my key back.”
“So my friend called us where we are eating that he had issue with the police in front of the police station that we should come around. So we left the food. We went down there. On getting there, he told us that a policeman that was not wearing uniform took his key while other policemen were also trying to harass him. He said, let me have my key first, then I’ll show you my papers. So I personally confronted the policemen.”
“Before I knew it, Ak that is one Akeem Olanrewaju came outside of the station and we tried to approach him that Mr Akeem, these your guys were trying to harass us. And he just said No, that he doesn’t know us. He now gave the other guy that is not on uniform a sign that he should deal with us. Before I knew it, the guy that is not on uniform punched me and Akeem also came and started using a gun to beat all my body. Two guns, the uniform men, they were using gun to hit me on my leg and back. They dragged me inside the station. Akeem Olarewaju also came to punch my mouth and pushed me inside the cell,” Jimoh added.
He revealed further that he later paid the sum of N3000 for his bail after he was unlawfully detained by the police at the Makinde station.
When he lodged his ordeals with the police as a complaint before the Lagos State Command Complaint Response Unit (CRU) on Saturday, he was told that the case had been registered for proper investigation.
When contacted for an update, The Unit told SaharaReporters that the victim should be at their Command in Ikeja for proper investigation.
“We need him to come and give a written statement and physical identification of the officers that assaulted him,” the Unit told SaharaReporters.