Afeez Hanafi
A Lagos-based interior designer, Stephen Akams, is
currently on admission at the University of Benin
Teaching Hospital with a damaged eye.
The 41-year-old man said a medical result he would
get on Thursday (tomorrow) would determine whether
he would see clearly again with his left eye or not.
PUNCH Metro learnt that Akams was battered last
Thursday, March 24, along the Benin bypass, Edo
State, by some policemen numbering about seven while
he was returning from an assignment in Enugu State.
It was learnt that four of the policemen were in a
vehicle ahead of a commercial car conveying the
artisan.
The police van was allegedly in the middle of the road,
moving at a slow speed when the driver of the car
signalled to overtake it by blowing the horn. It was,
however, said that the policemen refused to give way
for the driver.
Akams, who spoke with our correspondent on the
telephone, said he also signalled at the policemen when
the blockade persisted, but they took offence and
flagged down the car.
He said, “Our driver was driving at a speed limit of
about 70 kilometres per hour, but the police vehicle
was going slower in the middle of the road.
“In an effort to go past the vehicle, our driver sounded
the horn, but the driver, who eventually turns to be a
policeman, started abusing us.
“When we managed to go past them, I signalled at the
driver of the vehicle to caution him. That was when
they started chasing us and overtook us. One of the
guys at the back seat pulled a gun and threatened to
shoot if we didn’t stop.
“We were not sure who they were, so we decided to
reverse and that was when we discovered that
another white vehicle was following us. They trapped
us between them. They came down with their guns –
about six or seven of them – and dragged me out of
the vehicle. They accused me of insulting police
officers and beat me up.”
He said the policemen turned down his entreaties,
bundled him inside the boot of their car, and whisked
him away into a bush.
“They asked me to bring N100,000 for them to
release me. I told them I didn’t have the money. After
they had driven for about two miles with me in the
boot, they parked and brought me out and started
beating me again. When one of them saw the hand band
my friend’s daughter made for me and another one I
bought in Ghana in 2012, they said I was a cultist.
“I refutted the claim and the beating continued. They
brought handcuffs and threatened to take me to the
Department of Criminal Investigation. One of them
brought a fan belt and repeatedly hit me in the head.”
The Delta State indigene explained that the policemen
fled the area after the belt hit him in the eye and he
became unconscious. He added that it was the driver
of the car he boarded that trailed him to the scene and
took him to the hospital.
“It was the fan belt that hit my left eye and caused
serious damage. I am still on admission at UBTH with
blurred vision and in serious pain. I cannot see much with
the eye and I am not sure when I am leaving the hospital
because of the injury. The doctor said I would know my
fate on Thursday (tomorrow),” he said
Akams told PUNCH Metro that policemen at the
Ugbowo division near UBTH directed him to the state
police command when he reported the incident.
The Edo State Police Command spokesperson,
Abiodun Osifo, said he was not aware of the case and
promised to get back to our correspondent.
He said, “I am not aware of the incident, but it cannot
be true. The policemen cannot whisk him away to the
bush. I will make enquiries and get back to you.”
Osifo had, however, yet to do so as of press time.
http://www.punchng.com/policemen-accused-of-reckless-driving-damage-passengers-eye/

Version 1.0
And version 2.0 will have issues corroborating this tales

9ja police don cast

Fellow Nlanders Please help me pray for him he is my sister's Husband.





As for the policemen God will judge them one after the other