Policeman brutalises Lagos driver

Policeman breaks danfo driver’s head in Lagos

A bus driver was on Saturday brutalised by a police officer at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos State.

According to an eyewitness who tweeted and posted pictures of the incident, using the Twitter handle, @yekeme, the policeman allegedly assaulted the driver for hitting his (policeman’s) car and slightly denting it.

In the pictures posted on the social media platform, the unidentified commercial bus driver was seen with blood on his head.

The policeman was identified as Azeez Adebayo.

“An officer did this (assaulted) to a Lagos driver just now. This driver was brutally beaten and injured because of this scratch #LekkiTollGate. This is the corporal who injured the driver (Azeez Adebayo). The driver was tear-gassed.

“Workers of Lekki Concession Company came to the rescue of the driver with first aid. This driver was brutalised. They are now at the Maroko police station in Lekki Phase 1. He (policeman) is now begging the driver to forgive him,” he tweeted.

Efforts to get a reaction from the Nigeria Police proved abortive as phone calls made and text messages sent to the Police Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu and his Lagos State counterpart, Kenneth Nwosu, were not responded to earlier on Saturday.

Nwosu called back around 11pm and promised to give a reaction to the story.

He was yet to do this as at press time.

Earlier this year, a commercial driver, Paul Anieke, was beaten up by a naval officer, identified simply as Sunday, at Banana bus stop in Ajegunle in Lagos.

Anieke was said to be waiting at the bus stop on to pick passengers when the officer, said to be in a Nissan car with naval emblem, accused him of blocking the road. The officer was alleged to have angrily alighted from his car with a whip and repeatedly flogged the driver, hitting him in the eyes with his fist. The driver reportedly slumped and was later taken to the Ajeromi General Hospital.

In December 2014, a 29-year-old photographer, Ejeh Smith, and his pregnant wife, Grace, 26, were also assaulted by a police officer, identified as Dada Ogunsanya, who allegedly tortured them with his rifle.

Also in September, some policemen along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway beat up a commercial bus driver and his conductor for failure to part with some amount of money as “settlement” for alleged traffic offences.

The incident occurred at Agric bus stop, where the driver of a 14-seater commercial bus, marked, (LAGOS) GGE 554 XK, stopped to pick up passengers.

Similarly in February 2014, a cab driver operating on Falomo Road, Ikoyi, accused a Deputy Superintendent of Police, identified as Okon, of assaulting and chaining him to a rail for allegedly disrespecting him.

The cab driver, who identified himself as Obinna, claimed he was tied to a rail that was used to guard a pumping machine in the Falomo Police Hospital for over one hour and pummelled by another policeman on Okon’s instruction.