Cases of policemen assaulted by errant motorists and other lawless individuals have been on the rise in Lagos and other parts of the Southwest region in recent times. Only recently, one of the police victims was widely applauded by members of the public and honoured by the Lagos State Government for resisting the urge to deploy his AK-47 rifle in the face of extreme provocation by an arrested traffic offender. KUNLE AKINRINADEwrites on the insults and assaults endured by many police officers and men in their lines of duty.
The policeman dared to stop Ebhomenyen near Four Point Hotel on Victoria Island for driving against traffic.
The footage of the encounter, which gained traction in the social media, was a blow to the popular notion that policemen are impatient and would pull the trigger on civilians at the slightest provocation.
Erhabor, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), had stopped a Hyundai Sport Utility Vehicle driving towards the traffic on a one-way street. After pulling over the vehicle, Ebhomenyen and one other occupant allegedly alighted in the speed of light and attacked the police officer who in a manner unusual with the Nigerian policemen, restrained himself from using his official AK-47 rifle on the unruly motorist and his accomplice.
In the video, the suspect and another man were seen hitting and pushing the police officer and yelling in pidgin English, “Wetin we do? You want to shoot us? Na your one way? ‘You don already scatter our car. Even if it is one-way, you go tell us. You brought out a gun, you want to shoot. You go lose your job! We steal?” they said in the footage.
Throughout the duration of the video, which captured Ebhomenyen and his partner literally humiliating Erhabor, the latter remained calm and made no attempt to deploy the AK-47 rifle that hung on his shoulder.
Barely one week after the incident, another policeman of the same rank as Erhabor was brutally attacked by a truck driver who smashed a bottle on the officer’s head.
In the online footage of the incident, the traffic officer attached to the Abattoir Police Division in Oko-Oba area of Agege, Lagos, identified as ASP Dauda Ajayi, was seen at the back of a truck talking to the driver, who held an empty beer bottle in his hand.
The driver, urged on by onlookers, hit the empty bottle on the officer’s head, causing it to break into pieces before he pushed the police officer down from the truck.
According to a statement issued by the spokesperson of the Lagos Command of the Nigeria Police Force, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, the incident occurred near the Abattoir Police Division in Oko-Oba area of Agege, a Lagos suburb, when ASP Ajayi attempted to arrest the unnamed driver for hitting a Camry car; an incident that resulted in multiple accidents with a commercial motorcycle operator sustaining severe injuries.
Adejobi said: “The fact of the case is that on Wednesday 21st April 2021, at about 12.30 pm, there was a case of a serious hit and run accident involving a vehicle with Reg No BDG 756 YA, which hit a Camry car with Reg No. KJA 281 GQ. As a result, a motorcycle rider, Ashiru Saadu, was affected and seriously injured.
“In the process, the driver of the Camry car waited but the driver of the Dyna vehicle with Reg. No. BDG 746 YA escaped from the scene.
“The Traffic Officer gave him a chase and he (Dyna driver) was stopped at Pipeline Area Oko-Oba, Lagos. But the driver alighted from the vehicle, pounced on the Traffic Officer and broke a bottle on his head.
“The officer sustained varying degrees of injuries.”
The orgy of attacks on policemen shifted to Ondo State on April 23 when four men allegedly pounced on a policewoman, Bosede Ajayi, and stripped her naked in full public glare in their bid to evade arrest.
Ajayi had gone with other officers to invite the suspects to the station for questioning over their involvement in a case of malicious damage and threat to life.
Ajayi, was said to have been attacked and stripped naked allegedly on the orders of one Oladele Samuel, an alleged leader of a notorious gang. It was said that the four suspects, Oladele Samuel, Sunday Babalola, Adesina Isaac and Olawale Bukola, manhandled the policewoman for daring to effect the arrest of one of their gang members.
Earlier, on February 24 this year, an errant 38-year-old driver, Sunday Okodo, in an attempt to evade arrest knocked a Police Inspector, David Zapania, into a canal on Airport Road in Lagos.
In the video circulated on social media, the driver made an attempt to reverse his car when he ran into a team of law enforcement agents and in the process knocked the police officer who was standing behind his car into a canal.
The police said the incident left Zapania with a fracture on his left arm.
Police spokesman Adejobi identified Okodo as a resident of Alose Close, Apapa.
He said: “The incident occurred on Wednesday 24/2/21 at about 17:30hrs, when some LASTMA personnel (who) were backed up by the police on enforcement duty within the state intercepted a Toyota SUV, driving against the traffic along International Airport Road.
“The driver resisted arrest and while trying to escape, a Police Inspector David Zapania was knocked down from the bridge and he fell into a canal.
“The Police Inspector was rescued and rushed to the Lagos State Emergency and Trauma Centre where he was attended to and discharged. But he sustained a fracture on his left hand.”
Manhunt for offenders
Many offenders who assaulted policemen on lawful duties have been arrested lately, according to the police.
The police said that one of the suspects involved in the assault on ASP Erhabor, Mr. Ebhomenyen, had been arrested while operatives were on the trail of his fleeing accomplice.
The police said Ebhomenyen and his accomplice identified as Etinosa Obaywana, angrily confronted and assaulted the officer and inflicted bodily injuries on him.
In a statement released on Sunday, April 18, Adejobi said: “The Command has deemed it necessary and responsible to react and set the records straight on the incident that was captured in a video that went viral on social media on Saturday, 17th April 2021, where two (2) men were repeatedly assaulting an officer on duty and creating a scene on the road at Oniru, Victoria Island, Lagos State.
“To set the records straight, on 17/4/21, at about 1030am, one ASP Erhabor Sunday, m, and team attached to the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Command, who were on a convoy movement to drop off policemen at their various beats across the state blocked and stopped a white Hyundai SUV, MUS 251 EH facing the convoy on “one way”, driven by the suspect, Victor, at Four Point Hotel, Oniru, Victoria Island, Lagos State.
“When the police stopped the vehicle, the occupants, one Victor Ebhomenye and Etinosa Obaywana, angrily came down, confronted and violently assaulted ASP Erhabor Sunday, inflicting severe bodily injuries on him.”
Adejobi said: “The incident occurred on Wednesday 24/2/21 at about 17 30hrs, when some LASTMA personnel (who) were backed up by the police on enforcement duty within the state contravened (intercepted) a Toyota SUV, driving against the traffic along International Airport Road.
“The driver resisted arrest and while trying to escape, a Police Inspector, David Zapania, was knocked down from the bridge and (he) fell into a canal.
“The Police Inspector was rescued and rushed to the Lagos State Emergency and Trauma Centre where he was attended to and discharged, but sustained a fracture on his left hand.”
The police have also launched a manhunt for the driver who broke the bottle on ASP Ajayi’s head.
According to Adejobi, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, had ordered an investigation into the incident, starting with the arrest of the driver and his accomplices.
The four suspects who assaulted the Ondo policewoman have also been arrested and paraded at the state police command.
He said Inspector Ajayi “was part of the team of policemen from the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department deployed to invite a suspect in connection with a case of malicious damage and threat to life.”
He explained further that the officer and other members of the team were attacked by the hoodlums who also tore the clothe of the policewoman, brutalised her and caused her to lose the sum of N80,000 in the process.
Garlands for assaulted officer
Erhabor’s action has attracted praise and honour from Nigerian social media users, the police, and the Lagos State Government.
A Facebook user, Olatunde Adebiyi, wrote: “This is great. This officer maintained a high degree of calmness and maturity despite the provocation by the young driver.
“This officer’s unusual maturity in the face of provocation should be lauded and rewarded. His type is what the country needs to eradicate police brutality and injustice.”
A Twitter user, Solomon Apofure, wrote: “I have never seen this type of officer before. His conduct in the video is highly commendable.
“Only a man with a good temperament can resist the urge to shoot an aggressive attacker like the young driver who attacked this officer.
“Kudos to the officer for his rare calmness during the unnecessary confrontation.”
Commending Erhabor for his uncommon maturity despite provocation from Ebhomenye, the Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, noted that the command had zero tolerance for gross violation of traffic laws and regulations in the state.
Odumosu also lauded the officers for tactically enforcing law without any violation or infringement on suspects’ or people’s rights during the incident.
“The officer displayed a high level of professionalism amidst fierce provocation by resisting the temptation of using his rifle on the suspect,” he said.
Erahbor was also applauded and honoured by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu at the Lagos House in Alausa, Ikeja with the Commissioner of Police Hakeem Odumosu; Lagos Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat, Head of Service Hakeem Muri-Okunola and others in attendance.
The governor praised Erhabor for displaying a high level of professionalism by restraining himself despite repeated provocations by Ebhomenyen. (The Nation)
