Military men dehumanize 'Keke' rider over N250 bribe

isaac

March 6, 2015 4:48 PM

Some soldiers have been fingered in the brutality of a tricycle operator because he did not give them a bribe of N250.

Some soldiers attached to the OP MESA, a military security outfit in Lagos, allegedly took the laws into their hands when they descended on a 57-year-old tricycle (popularly called 'Keke Marwa', ) rider, Sunday Akomolafe, at the Ahmadiyya park, when the man, a member of the Nigerian Legion, refused to give them a bribe of N250.

New Telegraph reports that the victim lamented that the soldiers in an OP MESA van with Air Force 07 written on it, came to their park and insisted he should, ‘give them their dues’.

He reportedly told the soldiers that they had to wait for the executives of the park, but that they were not patient and descended on him, attacking him, injuring him in the process.

According to Akomolafe, they pay N500 every day to different security teams that visit their park, maintaining that the constant patrol of the park by security agents made them work under tension even though they were duly registered.

Akomolafe said:

"It happened on March 3, around 11am. I saw four OP MESA men. They came in a van with Air Force 07 written on it. They asked me for their ‘due’ and I told them that our executives were not around. Usually, it is our executives that used to pay them.

But they did not listen to my explanation. They asked me to raise N250 by all means. When I refused, one of them slapped me from the back. . One of them hit me with the butt of his gun.

People started begging on my behalf, fearful they would kill me. But they did not listen. I had lost much blood before I was rushed to the hospital."

isaac