Adewale Oseni, a commercial bus driver, is seeking justice after he was allegedly brutalized by a police officer identified as Supol Akeem (aka Spider) attached to Makinde Police Station in Oshodi, Lagos.
Oseni claims he was accosted by the officer while returning from a food vendor at 10 pm on July 14, and despite showing him the food he bought for his children, the officer hit him with an iron baseball baton, causing injuries to his leg and wrists.
Oseni was taken to the police station, locked up, and later sentenced to three weeks in Kirikiri correctional center.
“The bus I drove had a mechanical fault at Iyana-Isolo, so I got a mechanic to fix it. The repairs took my time till past 10 pm. On getting home, my children, aged 14, 10 and six years old, had not slept. They told me the food I left for them before I left home had been eaten in the afternoon and they had nothing to eat in the evening. Meanwhile, their mother passed on about two months ago. So, I left home that night to buy them food at a canteen nearby at Alhaja’s place on Oshodi Road.
“On my way back home, a vehicle parked closely behind me. I noticed he was a police officer attached to the Makinde Police Station at Oshodi known as Supol Akeem aka Spider. I pleaded with him and showed him the food I went to buy for my children but he was heady and tough with me. He knows me very well within the community as a commercial bus driver. I begged him for minutes and he still made up his mind to take me to the station with the food I bought for my children. As I continued begging him, he refused to listen to my plea, he was holding an iron (baseball baton) which he used to hit me hard on my right leg.”
The victim said he was taken to the police station and locked up while he was also feeling an excruciating pain in his leg.
He alleges that the officer’s actions were inhumane and that he was denied proper medical treatment for his injuries.
The bus driver is now calling for the intervention of the Inspector-General of Police and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, demanding compensation for his injuries and prosecution of the officer.
Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network has condemned the officer’s actions as inhumane treatment, police brutality, and human rights abuse.
The Lagos State Police Command is yet to make any statement regarding the incident.
