Okada riders lynch cop while rescuing injured man

For trying to be a Good Samaritan, Samuel Nmadu, a police corporal, is now with his ancestors. He was allegedly beaten with charms by commercial motorcyclists popularly known as okada. Nmadu, 32, was on duty at a checkpoint around Saamo area of Ogbomosho, Oyo State on Sunday, 8 May, 2011, with three of his colleagues.

It was during the heightened criminal cases involving okada riders in the town. At about half past six in the evening, Nmadu and his colleagues were still at their duty post, doing their work. While the four policemen stopped and searched vehicles and motorcycles that passed by, a motorcycle appeared from the corner of the road and the policemen waved him to stop. The rider, identified as Muyideen, was carrying someone (a friend he said was coming from a party with him). Apparently on top speed, Muyideen could not immediately halt the speeding machine, but the policemen moved to stop him, In the ensuing confusion, Muyideen managed to halt the Okada, but while he did that, the man sitting behind him fell off the motorcycle, hitting his head on the asphalt ground. He was injured and bled profusely. The policemen quickly rushed to save the life of the injured man.


The four of them hurriedly waved down an oncoming bus, with which they conveyed the injured man to the hospital. The confused policemen first rushed the injured man to Ikoyi-Ile a nearby town to Ogbomoso. Because of the degree of his injuries, doctors at the Ikoyi-Ile hospital immediately referred the injured man to a more equipped hospital, the BOWEN Teaching Hospital in the city. There at BOWEN, authorities demanded for registration fee for the patient. Determined to see the injured man attended to without further losing blood, Nmadu, ironically, was said to have rallied his colleagues to contribute the money and which they did. It was the deceased who reportedly went into the accounts sections of the hospital to pay the fees. Immediately payment was confirmed, the injured man was rushed into the male hall for medical attention. The four policemen did not leave the hospital even when the patient had been taken inside the ward for attention. They all waited outside the complex apparently to know the outcome of the treatment on the man.

While the four policemen waited outside, no fewer than a dozen of okada riders raced towards the gate of the hospital chanting war songs. A police source in Ogbomosho disclosed that while the policemen were in talks with the hospital authorities about how the injured man would receive treatment, Muyideen allegedly pulled a telephone call to one of his okada rider colleagues, asking them for help him in the hands of policemen that were trying to detain his motorcycle. Once the angry okada riders gained entrance into the hospital premises, they reportedly headed for the pavement on which the policemen were relaxing. Without wasting any time, the angry mob swooped on the law enforcement agents. Since they were unarmed, the four policemen were overpowered by the okada riders. The policemen were beaten to stupor as they were prevented from running away.

The confusion that ensued immediately drew the attention of hospital workers, who all came out but could not rescue the policemen from the hands of the mob. Less than two minutes after the fighting broke out, Nmadu slumped and fainted. When the mob realised that one of the policemen had slumped, they stopped the beating and immediately fled the scene. Some doctors, who had watched the drama while it lasted, rushed to rescue Nmadu. He was rushed to the emergency section of the hospital but was pronounced dead minutes later.

An eye-witness says the policeman might have been beaten with a charm. The man at the centre of the storm, Muyideen, in a chat with reporters, denied that he mobilised his colleagues to beat the law enforcement agents. His words: “I rode the okada that day. My injured friend and I were coming from a party after we had closed our shops around 4:30 pm that day, and we were returning from the party when the incident occurred. When the police stopped our okada, I was blocked by one vehicle in front of me. So, I did not even know that we were asked to stop. It was when the vehicle stopped that I realised that policemen had stopped us. As the motor stopped suddenly, I could not stop.

So, I just meander to the other side of the road to avoid accident. “As I moved to the side of the vehicle, one of the policemen thought I wanted to evade arrest. He then raised the stick in his hand to hit me, but I dodged it and the club hit the man on the back of the bike. The man fell off the Okada. Then I stopped and came down from the bike.” Muyideen himself confessed that the policemen joined him to attend to the injured man on his motorcycle. He continued, “The policemen got the vehicle we used to convey the injured man first to Ikoyi –Ile and when the hospital there could not do anything to him, the same policemen brought him back to Ogbomosho with me. They even paid for registration fee at the hospital. Two brothers of the injured man met us at the hospital.

While we were waiting for report on the injured man, one of the policemen just slumped while trying to pay for the bill of the injured man. He started shivering and convulsing. What we heard about an hour later was that he is dead.” Muyideen’s account of how Corporal Nmadu died did not go down well with spokesman of Oyo Police Command, Olatunji Ajimuda He told reporters that the suspect actually masterminded the invasion of the hospital by the okada riders and ordered the beating of the four policemen. “The okada riders attacked the deceased while he was trying to attend to the injured man. It seems that Muyideen mobilised his colleagues to the hospital which led to the policeman being lynched. The deceased was thoroughly beaten. If not so, even if the policemen had done wrong, is it not for the aggrieved people to have lodged a complaint at the doors of their superior officers at the stations?’ he asked. Meanwhile according to Ajimuda, investigations on the matter are still going on.
http://nationalmirroronline.net/community-mirror/crime-watch/14477.html

Picture