Police man brutalize me because my wife refuse to mary him

With an injury at the back of his
head and bruises on his body,
Afolabi Ojediran cut the picture
of a man who was attacked by
hoodlums. But he was not.
Rather, he was beaten up by a
riot policeman and a soldier.
He was not only beaten, his
clothes were torn and he was
detained for two days at the
Ikotun Police Divisional
Headquarters, Lagos. To
compound his woes, his niece
and her children were arrested
and detained, including an eight-
month-old baby. He was told to
cough up N25,000 before he
could be released.
PUNCH METRO gathered that
Ojediran’s predicament was as a
result of a friction between the
policeman, who was later
identified simply as Vincent and
Ojediran’s wife, Florence. It was
learnt that Vincent had been
making sexual advances to
Florence but had been turned
down on several occasions
which caused the friction
between the two.
Things however reached the
peak on Saturday, when Vincent
dragged Ojediran into the
problem.
Narrating how it all happened,
Florence said the policeman had
been on her neck to be his lover.
She added that the fact that both
of them were married did not
dissuade Vincent who seemed
bent to have his way at all costs.
She said, “Vincent has always
been making advances at me
even though he has a wife but I
never gave in. On several
occasions, he had threatened to
arrest me.
“I sell recharge cards, kerosene,
soft drinks and I’m also a tailor. I
have a lot of customers who
patronise me.”
She said she first had a minor
problem with Vincent on August
12, 2011. “That day, Vincent’s
wife came to my shop and she
met an old friend of hers whom
she greeted warmly before they
parted.
“Later that day, Vincent, came to
my shop accusing me of trying to
destroy his marriage by looking
for a man-friend for his wife. He
dragged me and the man in
question to the Ikotun police
station that day. We paid
N15,000 as bail.”
Florence said since the incident,
she tried as much as possible to
avoid Vincent and his wife. But
the measure was not enough to
stop the Saturday incident from
happening.
She said, “On Saturday, Vincent
came to my shop and started
making a nuisance of himself. I
shouted at him to go away.
Instead, he grabbed a 25-litre
keg of kerosene which was for
sale, and emptied it on the floor.”
PUNCH METRO learnt that when
Ojediran returned from work, his
wife reported the incident to him
and in the course of trying to
settle the matter, he got into
trouble.
Ojediran told PUNCH METRO that
he went to Vincent’s house to
ask him to let his wife be. He
said, “After my wife told me what
Vincent had done, I went to his
house to see how I could lay the
issue between him and my wife
to rest. But I was told by his wife
that he was not around. I went
to his landlord and told him
about the matter before going
back home.”
He said it was a furious Vincent
that came to his wife’s shop an
hour later. Ojediran added that
the policeman rebuffed all
attempts to make peace.
“I was sitting in front of my
wife’s shop at the time. Vincent
came with a man to the shop
and refused all my efforts to
make peace. Instead they started
to beat me.
“They tore my clothes and hit my
head against the edge of a fence.
They pushed me to the floor and
generally gave me the beating of
my life.
“I was supposed to deliver petrol
to a depot the following day and
the company had given me
N131,000 to deliver to someone
on the way. The money fell on
the floor as I was being beaten
and till now, I don’t know what
happened to it.
“When the residents came to my
rescue, I seized the opportunity
to escape from the scene
because they had threatened to
kill me,” he said.
After leaving the scene, Ojediran
and his wife went to the Ikotun
police station to report the
incident. They made their
statements to the police and
were told to return the following
day. But on the the following day,
things did not go as planned.
Ojediran said, “The following day,
which was Sunday, I went with
some policemen to Vincent’s
house, but on getting there, his
wife told us that he was in
hospital receiving treatment for
injuries he had sustained the
previous day.