A lawyer, Barrister
Stephen Ajagba, has alleged that a police officer, Inspector Gbenga
Daniel, attached to Meiran Police Station, gave him five hot slaps,
without his committing any crime.
Speaking with this
reporter at Ogba Magistrate’s Court, Ajagba said that the incident occurred
when he went to the station to see a client. The client had been detained for
over a week.
The angry lawyer said
that Daniel slapped and treated him like a common criminal.
According to Ajagba, when
he got to the station, he told the policemen that his client should be granted
bail or taken to court. He said that when he made that observation, Daniel
became uneasy.
Ajagba said that when he
was making his requests, the Divisional Crime Officer (DCO), Daniel and other
policemen were there. But it was only Daniel that told him in a threatening to
move far away from where he was standing.
Ajagba said: “Perhaps
after hearing what Daniel said, the DCO also became hostile. He asked who is
this mad man?” He was referring to me. I responded that I was
not a mad man. The same Daniel stood up and held my tie. He asked me, “Do
you know that you’re a suspect?” I thought he was joking. Before I
knew what was happening, he slapped me. He slapped me again on the
left side of my face. I told him that what he was doing was wrong. As I was
talking to him, he kept slapping me; in fact, he slapped me five times.
“When he released me, I
brought out my phone to take pictures of his handprints on my face; the DCO
took my phone from me. I believed it was a gang up against me. As if that
was not enough, Daniel held my tie, dragged me to the counter and said that I
was detained.”
Ajagba said that after
Daniel slapped him, he was locked up for 24 hours and arraigned in court for
assaulting police officers.
Ajagba’s lawyer, Mr.
Justice Uhuegbe, said that it was quite an unfortunate incident. He said that
his client’s encounter with the policemen highlighted abuses and police
brutality against citizens of Nigeria.
Uhuegbe said: “The
policemen beat him up. He was slapped several times. In Nigeria today, everyone
is talking about human rights and rule of law, how can such a thing continue to
happen in some police stations?
The question now is, are
we still in the democratic dispensation? And if such thing could happen to a
lawyer, one wonders what ordinary citizens would be going through in the hands
of policemen.”
Uhuegbe said that many
policemen had abused and brutalised people without them being brought to book
by the police authority.
Our correspondent
gathered that at least 20 lawyers embarked on a peaceful protest at the Ogba
Magistrate’s Court, demanding that justice should be done.
When our correspondent
contacted Daniel, he said that he didn’t know what the correspondent was
talking about. He cut off the call and further attempts made to call him back
were abortive, as his phone was switched off.
The Lagos State Police
Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole, when contacted, said
he was not aware of the incident. He promised to investigate and get back to
our correspondent. But as at press time, Famous-Cole was yet to get back.
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