Unprofessional Conduct: How Policemen Brutalised Dispatch Rider After Being Hit By Car
Call it unprofessionalism combined with a deliberate act of not asking questions before jumping to hasty conclusions, but it happened again on Monday when some policemen with boys in civil dress descended on some despatch riders under the bridge at Ikeja, near the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), and unleashed their wrath on them, beating some to a coma and arresting others.
While some beat the riders with batons, iron, sticks and other harmful things, a few other policemen shot canisters of tear gas, making people scamper for safety while some bikes were damaged in the process.
It was learnt that confusion reigned when a Range Rover SUV Jeep hit a despatch rider at Yaba and fled after the victim sustained serious injuries. As a result, the fleeing driver was pursued by his colleagues before they caught up with him at Ikeja.
According to a witness identified as Kolawole Komolafe, one of the riders, explained that the rider earlier had mistakenly hit and broken the rear light of the Range Rover SUV, blue in colour, with a registration number: LSR 810 FU.
Instead of the car owner demanding a repair or compensation, he was said to have used his car to hit the despatch rider and fell to the ground, leading to serious bruises on his right hand and back.
“Immediately, when he saw the seriousness of his injury, he jumped into his car and zoomed off, which prompted other riders to give him a protracted chase up to Ikeja, where they succeeded in blocking him.
In the melee, however, the car owner was compelled to take the victim to the hospital for treatment due to the severity of injuries sustained. He later agreed that while the bike was taken into the boot of his vehicle, the injured rider sat in the car, ostensibly to take him to the hospital for medical care.
“Surprisingly, he again sped past both the hospital and the pharmacy where he could have been treated. Sensing that he wanted to run away despite the injured rider being in his car, other riders had to chase him once again and blocked him under the bridge, very close to General Hospital, Ikeja, and prevented him from moving further.
Some policemen and LASTMA officers who were under the bridge on sensing the unfolding squabble had to intervene. Unfortunately, just as they were doing that peacefully, a police patrol vehicle, Vanagon bus painted with police colour with an inscription: Police, Ikeja Division suddenly appeared with policemen from under the bridge and they started shooting tear gas without bothering to ask what had transpired.
It was learnt that some guys in mufty who were with the police officers jumped at the riders and started beating and hitting them with big sticks, rods, baseball bats, and other things.
In the process, some of the riders were arrested, with some bikes broken by the police officers and the boys.
Sadly, it was gathered that some of the policemen who carried out this act never bothered to ask any question before engaging in such unprofessional display, an act that left passersby dumbfounded.
One of the onlookers that spoke anonymously said, “Police are supposed to be hamburgers of peace, not to add more injury to an already bad situation.” Other policemen were working tirelessly to calm down. If this is how policing jobs are carried out, we have not started. “You can see the pain they caused fellow citizens,” he asked.
Their actions, it was further gathered, angered the despatch riders, who protested against the police attitude. Calm was eventually restored.
