The police at the ‘B’ Division of the Nigeria Police, Ilesa, Osun State
on Tuesday, physically assaulted the secretary of the Nigerian Bar
Association, Ilesa branch, Mr. Olayinka Sokoya.
Our correspondent gathered on Thursday that the NBA scribe had gone to
the police station to secure the release of one of his clients, who was
allegedly detained by the police for a traffic offence.
Sokoya, on getting to the police station was said to have told the
Divisional Traffic Officer, Joel Bode, that the offence which his client
was being detained for was unknown to the law but this was said to have
infuriated the police officer.
The insistence of the NBA secretary to see his client was said to have
further annoyed the policeman who ordered the lawyer to leave the
station. The lawyer was said to have refused to obey the policeman’s
order, saying the police station was a public place and the officer had
no right to chase him out.
The angry officer allegedly attacked Sokoya and later asked some of his subordinates to bundle him out of the station.
When contacted on the telephone by our correspondent, Sokoya confirmed
the assault, saying he was treated in a hospital after the attack.
He said he was beaten and bundled out of the station on the order of the
police officer and suffered injuries and also lost his wedding ring
during the attack.
He said, “I went to B division of the Nigeria Police Ijamo, Ilesa to
bail my client who was accused of committing the offense of hiring a
fake driver. The divisional traffic officer, one Joel Bode, said I could
not teach him his job when I told him that there was no offense known
under our law as offense of hiring a fake driver particularly when the
driver has a valid driver’s license.
“He ordered me to leave his office when I told him I needed to see my
client. He became angry and held my neck to the wall. He asked his men
including one Corporal Osobu Oluwaseun, to bundle me out of the station
like a common criminal and my neck was broken in the process.”
Efforts to find out what happened through the Police Public Relations
Officer in the state, Mrs. Folasade Odoro, proved abortive.
The call put across to the PPRO’s telephone was not picked and the text
sent to her had yet to be responded to as of the time of filing this
report.
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