A clash between some Naval ratings and policemen attached to the Satellite Town Police Station, Lagos, was averted on Democracy Day.
Our correspondent gathered that trouble started when two young men, whose father had given charge of one of his houses at the Satellite town area of the state, had a problem with one of the tenants occupying one of the flats.
The father was said to have given the flats to his two male children to enable them to use the proceeds from the rent collected on them to augment their personal income.
But on June 12, 2019, one of the younger ‘landlords’ was said to have had a misunderstanding with a tenant concerning the rent. The male tenant was alleged to have informed his relation, who is a naval personnel at the Naval Base, Satellite Town, Lagos, of the disagreement he had with his landlord.
The Naval personnel invited by the tenant was said to have stormed the scene with his other colleagues, all dressed in their near-full military gear.
According to a naval personnel, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, the ratings subjected the two ‘young landlords’ to serious torture, beating them with whips and ordering them to swim inside dirty gutters.
However, the near-clash between the Naval ratings and policemen began when the eight personnel attempted to forcibly enter the police station in the area to free the tenant, who was being detained by the police following his earlier arrest over the disagreement with his young landlord.
Policemen had quickly locked the gate to the station, preventing the Naval personnel from gaining entry to avoid any clash. But this explanation infuriated the Naval personnel, who violently shook the gate to the station while raining curses and hauling unprintable insults at the policemen.
He said, “They were flogging the innocent young men as if they were common criminals. They later ordered them to roll inside the gutters while they continued to flog them with horse whip and wire. If you see the body of these two youngmen, you will pity them. They were really tortured. I’m not happy about such an illegal act. And I want to let you know that the police had earlier gone to the scene to arrest the tenant, who invited his relation in the Navy over a civil matter. The police detained him at the Satellite Police
Station.
“I want to inform you also that the eight Naval personnel went to the station so that the police would release the arrested suspect, who invited the military over civil matter, but the police did not allow them to step inside the station. The Naval personnel then began to violently shake the gate of the station, calling the police all sorts of names. The police were intelligent enough to know that if they allowed them into the station, they would like to forcibly release the detained tenant.”
“Apart from one personnel, who is just one step ahead, the other seven personnel are fresh ratings. I believe it was the Divisional Police Officer of Agboju (Satelite) Police Station, CSP Chike Oti, who called the Navy Base commander, who quickly moved to the station. He was able to appease the policemen for the insults they received from the ratings. Somebody must have leaked the information to those Naval personnel involved that our superiors were on their way to the police station; so they escaped through another route to evade being arrested by top officers, who could put them in the
guardroom.
Continuing, he said, “This is my 16 years in the force, but since I joined the Navy I have never taken part in such illegal act of attacking or punishing a civilian, because I’m a naval personnel. Everybody is very important. We all cannot be military personnel, policemen or even politicians. We are important regarding any service we offer as human beings. It is unfortunate that while all Nigerians were celebrating the new Democracy Day, some Naval personnel were fomenting trouble in uniform. I know our ‘oga’ will soon fish out the perpetrators.”
Matthew Dike, Ajegunle, Lagos.
