On Twitter yesterday, there was a trending conversation about a female youth corper named Odachi Abah, who was allegedly assaulted by a female police officer. Her sister, Ene Abah tweeted about the incident frequently.
This is Odachi’s account:
“On the 8th of October 2014 I got assaulted by a Policewoman. This is what happened.
On my way home from Oshodi-Isolo LGA, Lagos State, Nigeria with a friend Maduka Benson
after my NYSC clearance our vehicle (Honda accord) entered a hole which
pulled part of the car bumper. The policewoman standing in front
controlling the traffic kept shouting at us. And so Maduka who was
drivin, tried to explain to her that the car bumper was stuck, but she
insisted that we should get out of the way. A man told my friend not to
move, warning that if he did, the entire bumper would be ripped from the
car. He then crossed over to our side of the road, and helped us fix
the bumper so we could move on.
The policewoman named, Justina,
walked towards the window, facing where I was sitting and shouted in
broken English “SEE AS YOU FAT LIKE MUMU FULL THE MOTOR.” My friend and I
came out from the car asking the woman what we had done wrong to be
insulted in that manner.
She kept shouting and raising hell. I
was wearing my NYSC uniform at the time, so I walked towards her.
Surprisingly, she pushed me back and pulled out her weapon (a baton) and
hit me on my face three times.
The first one knocked my glasses off my
face while the rest hit parts of my face which resulted in instant
bleeding. I bled for a long time while searching for the woman until I
clearly heard her colleagues telling her to run and hide.
The police woman took to their advice
and ran away. Other policewomen suddenly surfaced at the scene and one
of them started calling my friend an armed robber for no reason.We asked
them which station they were from, but they refused to tell us.
Maduka then decided to block the entire
road causing traffic, in order to force the police woman to reveal what
police station they were from. Finally, one of the female police
officers told us that they were from Makinde police station, in
Mafoluku, Oshodi.
A few minutes later a police Hilux
vehicle arrived at the scene telling us to get back inside our car so we
could go to Makinde police station. A police man sat at the back seat
in our car, while the rest remained in their vehicle , driving in front
of us to Makinde police station.
When we got to the station my friend
asked for the station officer (S.O) – but they said he wasn’t around. My
friend and I tried to explain the situation to the two policewomen we
met at the station. Suddenly, one of them started telling my friend to
reduce his voice, saying that we should keep the incident a secret.
One of the policemen who came to the
scene where I was assaulted, approached us and told us that his boss,
who is a female, would like to see us in her office. When we got to the
office, she summoned the policewoman that assaulted me over the phone
and also called another police man named David to investigate the
matter.
My friend narrated the incident to the police boss in detail.
Justina, the policewoman who assaulted
me finally came in for questioning. Their boss proceeded to ask her to
explain what had happened. The policewoman then began to lie, saying
that Maduka and I had beat her up, and that we took her police cap and
removed buttons from her uniform.
After Justina’s stories, her superior
could tell that she was lying. And so she ordered David to put Justina
in a police cell. Afterwards we write wrote our statements.
The police boss then begged us to
forgive Justina. She then took our phone numbers and promised to call us
when they need us. We agreed and left the station.
We still intend to take proper legal
action against Justina because she may have been brutalizing others and
getting away with it. We want her to face the consequences of her
actions.”
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