TWO groups, the Civil Liberties Organisation and Masses Education Against Crime Initiative, have called for the release of a truck driver, Jelili Ismaila; and his motorboys – Bankole Amidu, Elijah Samson, and Moses Proboye – who were recently arrested in Dalemo, Sango Ota area of Ogun State, over the death of a Police constable beaten by hoodlums.
There were reports that the Ogun State Police Command had arrested some hoodlums who allegedly beat a yet-to-be-identified police constable to death in Dalemo, Sango, in the Ado-Odo-Ota Local Government Area of the state.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a statement, identified the suspects as Jelili Ismaila, 22; Amidu Bankole, 34; Elijah Samson, 36; and Moses Proboye, 34.
He said the suspected hoodlums beat the policeman to a coma with weapons around 9.30pm that Sunday, adding that the deceased constable and one other were escorting their principal from Idah in Kogi State to Lagos State when the incident happened.
But the group said the truck driver and his motorboys were innocent, claiming that they were not the hoodlums who beat the police constable to death.
The Chairman, CLO in Ogun State, Comrade Yemi Eniitan, during a press briefing, said some members of Amidu’s family, came to the Owode Yewa office of the organisation, in Ikorodu, on September 14, to intimate them on the arrest of Amidu, who just buried his father about a week ago, and that of his motorboys.
Eniitan said the two groups went to Sango Divisional Police headquarter the same day, to find out what had happened from the police, adding that they also went to the scene of the incident.
“It was a different story with a little similarity to what we heard from the police that we were told at the scene of the incident,” he said.
Enitan, who doubles as the founder of MEACI, said, “During the course of our investigation, we found out that the Police Escort and the Senior officer’s car were on a high speed, blowing syrene from Sango Ota, going towards Dalemo toll gate, when they nearly ran into the truck in question. The driver of the truck, we gathered, and other vehicles were thrown into pandemonium, so everyone was clearing off the road.
“As a result of this pandemonium, the Escort could not control its speed and it nearly ran into the truck. The truck driver, Jelili, swerved from ‘culvert to culvert’ just to avoid hitting the Escort vehicles that were about running into the truck until he hit his tyre on an object that deflated it.
“As a result of the bursts, the driver came down to complain to the Escort what confusion they caused and asked for compensation for the replacement of his tyre.
“While this was going on, hoodlums around the area popularly called ‘OMOTAKU’ came out of their abode to attack the Police Escort for driving dangerously. The deceased Policeman was attempting to protect his boss from being attacked by the hoodlums, so he tried to shoot in the air, but the hoodlums quickly attacked him and collected the magazine attached to the riffle and then beat him mercilessly.
“During this scenereo, the truck driver and his motorboys had to run for their dear lives so they wont be attacked by the hoodlums who often stopped truck drivers to extort money from them each time they pass through the area.
“After the crisis calmed, the truck driver and his motorboys came to fix their tyre, not knowing that a Police officer had died during the free for all fight. If they were aware, they would not have gone back to the scene. It was while they were fixing the tyre, that a team of Policemen from Sango division came around to arrest them.”
Enitan asked for justice to prevail, saying the Police should go in search of the real hoodlums that killed the officer.
”We have written to the Commissioner of Police, Ogun State Command, in respect of the incident and urged them to critically look into the matter so as not to unjustly prosecute the suspects as no one should be made to suffer for the offence committed by another person,” he said.
