More facts have emerged on the alleged involvement of the then Divisional Police officer (DPO) of Ikoyi Police Station, Aishat Haruna, in the alleged brutalizing of a couple by a police corporal around Ikoyi area of Lagos State recently.
The driver of the private commercial car that drove the couple on the day of incident called Ndubusi revealed to our correspondent on phone that the alleged DPO was not at the scene of incident until when she was informed and she came within five minutes.
It will be
recalled that Ejeh Smith and his wife, Grace, were on their way home in a cab
around Lekki area of Lagos State, when a police corporal, Dada Ogunsanya,
stopped the driver.
After conducting a
routine check on the cab and the driving licence of the driver, Ogunsanya
beamed his torch on the passengers.
They were said to
have protested the action, saying the inner lights of the cab were on and there
was no need for the action.
In the ensuing
argument, which degenerated into a scuffle, Ogunsanya, allegedly tortured the
couple by hitting Ejeh in the eye with the butt of his rifle and stepped on his
wife’s stomach.
The DPO, Aisha
Haruna, was alleged to have backed the police corporal’s action on her arrival
at the scene.
She was also said
to have deleted Grace’s recordings of the incident from her phone.
The police, in its
reaction, however, said Ejeh was drunk on the night of the incident and he took
a snapshot of the DPO, threatening to send her picture to his pastor who would
pray against her.
Recalling the
event vividly, Ndubuisi said: “It was the arrival of the DPO that saved the
situation which would have been another story today. The couple held and was fighting
with the policeman before the DPO came.
“It started after I picked the man and the woman at Obalende and was on our way to Ikoyi when the policemen stopped my vehicle and questioned me on where I was heading to at the hour. The policeman later demanded for my drivers’ license and asked me to open my cab boot for checking,” he narrated.
He revealed further, “It was while this was going on that the woman in the vehicle started shouting that the policeman should allow them to go because he was delaying them. The policeman then flashed his torchlight on them, which made the woman to shout again, complaining that the car inner light was on and should he flash the torchlight on them.”
The driver added, “This made the policeman to become annoyed. He asked the two of them to come out, but they refused. The policeman dragged the man out by force, which made the woman to come down and started to abuse him.
“There was a struggle between them. The policeman slapped the man who replied. The fight started between the couple and the policeman when the butt of the rifle carried by the policeman hit the man on the face and it bleeding.”
He stressed further that it was during the scuffle the DPO was called and she came immediately and separate them before asking for the cause of the fight.
“She asked myself, the couple and the policeman to come to Ikoyi Police station for statement and later gave hospital papers to the couple to go for treatment at Police hospital, Falomo, while she ordered that the policeman uniform should be removed and be detained in the cell. There was nothing that concerned the DPO in the matter,” he remarked.
Similarly, a video recorded at the station and made available to our correspondent, showed how the couple was harassing the DPO because she collected the woman’s mobile phone which she claimed she used to record the incident and has sent it to her Pastor and other people.
The man was also showed how he was pointing finger to the DPO face who was cautioning him to behave and stop pointing finger to her face but to go and treat himself and his wife at hospital.
Meanwhile, some policemen who commented on the issue under anonymity were bitter about the way a newspaper was handling the matter without making thorough investigation before conclusion.
According to them, “In this type of case, the newspaper and the lawyer that has been talking about the case should have investigate and reach out to the accused policeman and other people at the scene of incident. It is even worst for both the reporter and the lawyer to be roping in the innocent DPO who did what she was supposed to do by detaining the Policeman and later handed him over to the Police Provost.”
They remarked, “The accused policeman has been on detention and interrogation since the day of the incident. Nobody cared about that.”
“It started after I picked the man and the woman at Obalende and was on our way to Ikoyi when the policemen stopped my vehicle and questioned me on where I was heading to at the hour. The policeman later demanded for my drivers’ license and asked me to open my cab boot for checking,” he narrated.
He revealed further, “It was while this was going on that the woman in the vehicle started shouting that the policeman should allow them to go because he was delaying them. The policeman then flashed his torchlight on them, which made the woman to shout again, complaining that the car inner light was on and should he flash the torchlight on them.”
The driver added, “This made the policeman to become annoyed. He asked the two of them to come out, but they refused. The policeman dragged the man out by force, which made the woman to come down and started to abuse him.
“There was a struggle between them. The policeman slapped the man who replied. The fight started between the couple and the policeman when the butt of the rifle carried by the policeman hit the man on the face and it bleeding.”
He stressed further that it was during the scuffle the DPO was called and she came immediately and separate them before asking for the cause of the fight.
“She asked myself, the couple and the policeman to come to Ikoyi Police station for statement and later gave hospital papers to the couple to go for treatment at Police hospital, Falomo, while she ordered that the policeman uniform should be removed and be detained in the cell. There was nothing that concerned the DPO in the matter,” he remarked.
Similarly, a video recorded at the station and made available to our correspondent, showed how the couple was harassing the DPO because she collected the woman’s mobile phone which she claimed she used to record the incident and has sent it to her Pastor and other people.
The man was also showed how he was pointing finger to the DPO face who was cautioning him to behave and stop pointing finger to her face but to go and treat himself and his wife at hospital.
Meanwhile, some policemen who commented on the issue under anonymity were bitter about the way a newspaper was handling the matter without making thorough investigation before conclusion.
According to them, “In this type of case, the newspaper and the lawyer that has been talking about the case should have investigate and reach out to the accused policeman and other people at the scene of incident. It is even worst for both the reporter and the lawyer to be roping in the innocent DPO who did what she was supposed to do by detaining the Policeman and later handed him over to the Police Provost.”
They remarked, “The accused policeman has been on detention and interrogation since the day of the incident. Nobody cared about that.”
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