An Abuja-based businessman, Kenneth Odeh, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, over the police brutality he suffered, News About Nigeria reports.
The businessman reported three police officers — Isa Momoh, a deputy superintendent of police, one Itodo, and one Segun — to the Inspector General of Police for urgent punishment to serve as a deterrent to others in that same clique.
He noted that he was unjustly brutalised with gun butts and other weapons, adding that he was intimidated and seriously wounded by the three policemen on Saturday, August 17, under the EFAP Metropolitan Bridge in Abuja without committing any offence known to law.
He stated that apart from inflicting physical harm to his body, the three policemen also made him lose his wallet containing £1000, a cap, a power bank, and a Samsung Galaxy Fold 3 phone.
Mr. Odeh explained that the policemen first asked him to open his boot, which he did, and thereafter ordered him to produce his car particulars, which would expire in November this year.
He said he complied but was shocked to be asked by the policemen to follow them to their office in Galadinma.
In the document signed by the Principal Partner of Graham Ochogwu of Risenarch Attorneys, on behalf of Odeh, the petitioner wrote, “They hit him on the face and other parts of his body with the butt of their guns and sticks. It was then that he realised that they were drunk. They collected his car keys at gunpoint and threatened to waste him.
“They bundled him into a Hilux van and took him to the Galadinma police station. In the process of manhandling our client without provocation, he lost his wallet containing 1000 pounds, a cap, a 40,000 MaH power bank, and his Samsung Galaxy Fold 3 phone’ screen was smashed.
“Upon arriving at the police station, he was locked up with about 10 people (most of them have been there for an upward of two months) in a container without ventilation with a bucket toilet for over two hours. It took the intervention of a retired military officer before he was released but as of the time of writing this petition, his car is still being detained in spite of every plea for it to be released.
“Our client proceeded to the hospital, where he underwent a series of medical tests and his injuries were treated. Attached herein is a receipt for the medical report that is being processed at the hospital.
“As a result of the assaults and threats, he has been experiencing severe anxiety, physical pain and he fear for his safety and well-being.”
