A Lagos State civil servant, Elder Komolafe David Oluwadare, has demanded justice over the brutality he suffered in the hands of a police officer simply identified as Ededi, with service number 443803, over 11 years ago.
Oluwadare, who appeared before the Lagos State Judicial Panel on Restitution for victims of SARS-related abuse and other matters, said he was battered by the police officer in a bus at mile 2 area of Lagos on his way to his church around 5am for a prayer meeting.
According to him, his ordeal in the hands of the police officer started when he requested the officer to adjust for him in a bus.
He said, “The last three days ending the year 2010, my Church the Apostolic Church of Nigeria, organised a three-day early morning prayer to end the year. I already attended the first day; the 30th was the second day. I was going to attend the prayer meeting, I joined a coastal bus at mile 2 upon entering, the bus was full.
“The only available space was where the policeman was sitting and I pleaded with him to adjust for me to sit down. I was surprised with the rude response from him; politely for the second time I told him the seat was large to contain the two of us but he responded violently again. Before I could hold my peace and decided to alight, the policeman in question pounced on me and began to assault me. The driver decided to stop due to the commotion, while the passengers on the bus tried to stop him and rescue me. This, however, only led him to drag me down forcefully and he started using his strong belt on me. He equally threatened other passengers that he was going to deal with them that he has his other colleagues around Mile 2.
“The bus conductor and other passengers tried to rescue me from his hand; so I tried to defend myself in a little way because I did not want to be caught on the wrong side of the law for fighting a policeman in full uniform. My little attempt in defence led to his tearing my trousers, which contained a little sum of money and my stacom phone.
Narrating his ordeal further, Komolafe explained that the police officer also seized two mobile phones from him.
“He also seized my Nokia C1 with MTN and my Starcom mobile phone while he lamented that he would have shot me dead if he had his gun with him. After being battered mercilessly, I realised I could no longer go to Church. Meanwhile, I wanted justice to prevail for me. And for this to happen, I realised I needed to get his name and Force number for identification. This made me follow him while he kept on battering me with a long iron in his hand. When I appeared tired of the situation, I resorted to pleading with him so that we can settle the issue.
“Though he agreed, he realized I had been severely injured; he attempted to escape by boarding another vehicle, which I tried to prevent by shouting at the driver of any bus that tried to pick him. In the long run, he boarded a bus around Doyin area while I immediately boarded the same bus only for him to push me down from the moving vehicle.
“After much struggle with him, I was able to get his service number when we got to Agbara bus stop.”
Speaking on his efforts to retrieve his belongings from the police officer and also seek justice, Komolafe said he reported the case at Agbara Police Division.
“With this identity information I got, I only went to the Police Station, Agbara, to report myself but unfortunately police started dribling me, asking me to go from one police station to the other until I came to Ikeja and at this point I was exhausted limping and feeling disappointed with serious pain in my head. I had no other option than to go to Ikeja Hospital for treatment and I also took pictures of the injuries I sustained as a result of the battering”.
Speaking further, Elder Komolafe told the Judicial Panel that he finally laid his complaints on the 10th of January 2011 after he wrote a petition to the Commissioner of Police on the matter.
“After my petition to the CP, he assigned one Sergeant Bello Panti Yaba to see to the matter. Unfortunately, I couldn’t pursue the case further when Sergeant Bello demanded the sum of N30, 000 thousand for his service.”
Elder Komolafe also told the court that he later got justice at a High Court after a Non-Governmental Organisation intervened.
Meanwhile, the presiding judge of the panel, Justice Doris Okuwobi, adjourned the case till February 10 for further hearing.