Widower seeks justice after claiming illegal police arrest and sentencing

The man said he went to buy food for his three children when a police officer accosted him.

One Adewale Oseni has cried out for justice after accusing a police officer of illegally arresting him.

The officer is said to be attached to Makinde Police Station in the Oshodi area of Lagos State .

Oseni, who’s a commercial bus driver, recalled that he was returning from a food vendor where he had gone to purchase food for his three children on Wednesday, July 14, 2024, at about 10 pm when the officer accosted him.

According to Oseni, whose wife passed away three months ago, efforts to show him the food he bought and also appeal to him were ignored by the police officer identified as Akeem.

The widower said Akeem soon hit him with an iron baseball baton on the spot.

“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, he said.

“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,” narrating what happened on his way back home.

The victim said he was taken to the police station and locked up while he was also feeling an excruciating pain in his leg.

The Oyo State-born transport worker said he was taken to the Lagos State Task Force office the following day from where he ended up in court and later sentenced to prison.

He noted that the injury he sustained in his leg due to the assault by Akeem worsened during the time he spent in prison.

He, however, added that after his release on Saturday, August 10, the injuries on both his hands and legs festered and turned to big sours.

While revealing that the injuries had paralysed him, Oseni called for the intervention of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Kayode Fayoade.

He also demanded compensation for the injury inflicted on him by the officer, while also calling for his prosecution.

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