‘I lost two teeth’, contractor alleges police brutality before Lagos panel

A building contractor, Olajide Fowotade, on Saturday revealed how he was allegedly tortured by plain-clothed policemen from the Ketu Division in Lagos over three years ago.

Fowotade, 60, and the second person to testify before the state’s judicial panel of inquiry probing allegations of police brutality in the state, said the policeman accused him of attempting to knock them down with his vehicle on March 11, 2017.

According to him, the incident took place a few weeks before his daughter’s wedding held on April 2 of the same year.

Fowotade told the panel that the policemen removed two of his teeth before dragging him to their station.

The man said the policemen who were on a motorcycle accused him of attempting to run them over when he abruptly applied the brake to avoid hitting a tricycle that veered off its lane.

READ ALSO: I lost my two-month pregnancy when SARS tortured me for 22days, school teacher tells Lagos Panel

He added that one of the policemen simply identified as Ayo head-butted him on the mouth and knocked off two front teeth.

He said: “I was thoroughly beaten up at the station and even the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) was alarmed and reprimanded the policemen when he found out.

“I was not myself for several weeks and I spent hundreds of thousands of naira to fix the teeth and leg that was badly bruised by the policemen.

“How can somebody just beat me up and nothing happened?”

The contractor demanded a compensation of between N2million and N3million when he was asked by the panel what he wanted.

He said: “I want Justice. However, the sum of N2million or N3miillion would help as compensation.”

The panel adjourned hearing in the petitions till November 10.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now