POLICE CHAINS AND BEATS UP A TAXI DRIVER FOR DISRESPECTING HIM IN FALOMO

A taxi driver identified has Obinna who operates on Falomo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos State claims that he was assaulted and chained to a rail by a Deputy Superintendent of Police, simply identified as Okon, for allegedly disrespecting him. The cab driver claimed that he was tied to a rail that was used to guard a pumping machine in the Falomo Police Hospital for over one hour and punched severally by other police officers at the instruction of Okon. The cab driver said that it took the intervention of a superior police officer before he was released and had to be admitted to the hospital due to the torture he underwent.
According to the Obinna, “On Tuesday, I had just got fuel from a fuel station, I was about reversing my car to join the main road when DSP Okon, who was standing with another officer in mufti asked me to stop. He said I should give him my key, which I refused. He then asked the officer to enter my car and ordered me to follow him”. “I told him I wanted to know my offense and that I would not release my car key to him just like that”. “He asked why I parked in a place that was designated for us, I told him that I did not park but was trying to reverse. He dragged me to the police hospital and I was seriously beaten up.” “I was chained to the machine rail while the man in mufti kicked me, I was told that I disrespected the rank of the man by not giving him my car key.” He said the policeman vowed to dump him in the Ikoyi prison as soon as he finishes preparing the necessary papers for his detention, it was when the superior officer came by and saw where he was chained and queried Okon, and was asked to be released when he found out that he didn’t commit any offense. The cab driver who is an indigene of Anambra State said that after he was discharged from the hospital the following day that Okon still came after him and deflated the tyres of his car. According to Luke Gum, a graduate of Mass Communication of the Lagos State University who also operates a cab business in the Falomo area, said that cab drivers are always harassed and extorted by policemen. He also alleged that officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority were in the habit of impounding their vehicles on any flimsy excuse. Luke Gum had this to say, “I can only compare myself to a criminal when it comes to the kind of treatment we get as cab drivers on this route. Most of us here are graduates but we became drivers to survive since there is no job. I managed to save money to buy this cab pending when I will get a better job and yet, see what they are doing to us. We are arrested at least two times in a day, and made to cough out between N7,000 and N9,000 on each occasion.”
Another driver on the route, one Nicodemus Nicolas, who has been plying the route for about a year, said he was once arrested three times in a day by LASTMA officials for driving slowly in a traffic jam. It was learnt that the cab drivers embarked on a two days strike last year to protest their continuous harassment. The Chairman of the cab drivers, Alhaji Danlami Gana, said his men were usually the target of policemen and agencies of the state government because they did not have a permanent motor park.