Reporter’s diary: police brutality against Okada riders

The time was 8:45pm.

The day was Tuesday, June, 18, 2013.

The roads, from Lagos Island to Oshodi were free, thanks to the ‘no market’ order imposed on traders in Lagos State that day. The order was a sort of commiseration with the ex-governor of Lagos, Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his mother’s death.

Suddenly there was a traffic snarl as we got closer to Ikeja along, under bridge. Those of us in commercial buses couldn’t understand what was happening at the front.

There was no doubt however that something was going on. I was sitting by the side of the bus window and tried valiantly to see what was happening at the front.

We were now driving at a snail pace.

Suddenly we saw commercial bike riders, riding like the hounds of hell were after them. Many of them seemed hell bent on crushing anything on their way. As they rode furiously away, they glanced back repeatedly.

There was stark fear on their faces!

Our attentions were now fully arrested.

And then, out of nowhere, we saw policemen, chasing after some of the bike riders. Many of them were in black trousers and tops. They had face caps; ranging from grey to dark colour.

One of the unfortunate bike riders, lost control of his bike and crashed heavily to the ground.

He tried to get up, but he was apparently in pains. He fell back on the ground, with his motorbike on his left leg.

A policeman, who was hard on his heels, picked a giant plank and slammed it with blinding rage on the Okada rider’s head and body.

I heard someone screamed in shock. I didn’t know it was me. Then I knew it was me.

There was no doubt in my mind that the policeman meant to kill the bike rider.

The bike rider crawled out from under his bike...attempted to stagger off, but fell.

Other policemen ran towards him and started kicking him from all sides. They dragged him up and rained slaps on him.

They kept shouting at him, “una no dey hear word! Una no dey hear word! You go die today!”

The policeman wielding the plank raised it to slam it on the man and I screamed again.

A senior police officer, in blue uniform top, told the plank wielding policeman to drop the plank.

The bike rider was dragged away, while he kept panting, “Oga abeg! Oga Abeg!

Goose bumps covered my body. I shivered in shock. Passengers in the buses started commentary on the brutal drama which had just played out.

As our bus moved forward, we saw another horrifying display.

All the impounded motorbikes were kept one side, while the commercial bike riders arrested were ordered to lie on the dusty ground. They lay close to one another. Body to body, face downward, kissing the dust.

An obscenely fat policeman mounted their backs, walking from one back to another serenely, like he was on the entertainment industry red carpet.

And the senior policeman saw all these and did nothing.

The picture of what I witnessed was engraved in my memory. I couldn’t shake it off, no matter how hard I tried.

These men should be called to order. I thought the best bet was to alert the Officer in Charge (OC) of Task Force.

When I got home, I picked the police directory and looked for the OC Task Force phone number.

There it was! The name says: Sulaiman Bayo

I dialled the number: 08033183477

I narrated what I had witnessed.

He told me that I should go and dissipate my energy on warning the commercial bike riders to obey the law.

I told him that I knew they were law breakers, but I think these men should be arrested and charged to court, not treated like animals and dehumanised. 

I mean, after all said and done, they have rights, don’t they?

And let’s not forget, these impounded motorbikes are going to be crushed anyway!

One of the major ways to humiliate a man is to take his source of livelihood from him. And these policemen have done that!

Why this horrible treatment?

But Commander Sulaiman Bayo appeared to already have a mindset towards torture. So much for human right laws in Nigeria! It’s a mockery!

Apparently angry, he told me that some of his men were in hospital, due to Okada riders, who attempted to ride through them in order to evade arrest.

Does this mean then, that this dehumanising treatment is a revenge operation?

If they can treat the bike riders in that way under the public glare, imagine what they would do to them when they get them alone in their stations? Torture and kill them?

If some of these motorbike riders survive from what I saw that day, then it would be by sheer grace of God.

Even the guy, who was bludgeoned with a plank, might suffer internal bleeding or head injury.

Agents of the government like Commander Sulaiman Bayo and his men commit this sort of atrocities and get away with it because they are protected under umbrella of the state’s government, who are the law makers. Many of them who work with the state’s government seemed untouchable.

If you’ve lost someone in motorbike accident, you’d understand and appreciate the restriction of Okada riders on some highways.

But must we, under the armpit of the law, maltreat our fellow human beings?

The Inspector General of Police (IG), Mohammed Abubakar, can’t check these erring policemen, let alone the state’s commissioner of police, Prince Umar Manko.

It’s only the state’s government that can check them, thus I hope Fashola will check the excesses of these men before extra-judicial killings become the order of the day.

If these policeman only fear and worry about the anger of the state’s government instead of the police top hierarchy, then you can best imagine what would happen if we ever end up having a state police.