A raid on okada riders operating around Agege area of Lagos by policemen from the Elere Police Division turned bloody on Monday, November 28, 2016 leading to the lynching of a police sergeant by irate youths.
Saturday Punch learnt that the policeman, a Kogi State indigene popularly known as Sunday in the area, was beaten brutally and then stabbed a number of times before being left for dead at Ile-Epo Bus Stop, Oke Odo.
The raid, which motorists and okada riders around the bus stop, said was the policemen’s way of making money off them, turned awry when the policemen tried to seize the motorcycle of a yet-to-be-identified okadarider.
A resident, who pleaded anonymity, told Punch’s correspondent that on Monday evening, the policemen arrived the area in a commercial bus and cornered the okada rider, who quickly tried to flee to avoid losing his motorcycle.
The resident said, “As he tried to turn the other way, a tipper speeding along hit him. People rushed at him but when they picked him off the floor, he was unconscious and bleeding heavily. Nobody in this area knows the okada rider.
“Immediately he was hit, the policemen saw how bad it was and tried to run away. But this angered the youths.
Some of them picked bottles and sticks and chased after the policemen. That officer (Sunday) was the only one they could catch up with. We got news later in the day that the okada rider did not survive.”
Saturday Punch learnt that the mob descended on Sergeant Sunday with sticks and broken bottles. He was brutally beaten, sustaining several stab wounds in the process.
His colleagues later came back for him after the area was deserted, it was learnt.
A policeman told Punch that Sergeant Sunday was rushed to a number of hospitals around Agege, which rejected him. But he was eventually taken to another hospital in Yaba, where he was pronounced dead.
However, since the incident, residents around Ile-Epo Bus Stop said policemen from the division have been arresting people in the area on a daily basis.
Saturday Punch contacted the Lagos State Police Command to determine what was being done on the case. But the spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, said findings revealed that the okada rider recognised the policeman and tried to flee on sighting him.
According to her, a police team was in the area on a routine patrol but it is unclear the reason why the okada rider tried to run away when he sighted him.
“The okada rider ran into an oncoming vehicle at the junction and the hoodlums seized the opportunity to attack the policeman.
“We have arrested eight of the suspects and charged them to court.”
-Punch
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