Police authorities defend brutal cop

The authorities on the Nigeria Police Force in Lagos does not see anything wrong in the power-drunk police officer, Dada Ogunsanya, who brutalized a man and his wife, Ejeh and Grace Smith, inflicting serious injuries on them, sometime last week around the Lekki Penninsula Estate, by saying the couple deserved what they got because they were drunk and spoke to the officer insolently.

The police authorities further said that Smith and his wife engaged the officer in a scuffle and attempted to disarm him, thereby incurring the beating they got.

The pathetic case which has drawn lots of condemnation from the public, has further dented the image of the police and their relationship with civilians in the country, going by the high handedness of some of them, but instead of sanctioning the erring officers including the Ikoyi Police Division DPO, Aisha Haruna, who, according to the victims, confiscated and destroyed their camera, the police is backing their own, saying Ogunsanya did nothing wrong.

Though the Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, has told the media that Ogunsanya, has been detained and will be punished if found guilty, there are strong indications that he will go free in a very short time.

"Investigation is ongoing because as a command, we are alive to our responsibility and we do not condone any act of incivility to members of the public.

However, the police corporal is alleging that the couple fought him in uniform. The man in question (Ejeh) was alleged to be drunk, and since that incident happened, he has refused to make statements to the police. If you have a good case, why will you say you don’t want to make statement?

The Ikoyi DPO they are mentioning said she arrived at the scene and ordered all of them to be taken to the station. She was the one who even issued medical forms to them so they could go to the hospital.

The man (Ejeh) told her (DPO) that he had taken her picture and would send it to his pastor to pray against her. I was told that he made the station uncomfortable. Can that be right? Is that the way to behave?

We are interested in flushing out the bad eggs in the system and if this officer that has been accused is one of them, we will flush him out."

But reacting to the allegation that he was drunk or that he engaged the police officer in a fight, Smith said:

"I was not drunk that night because I was coming from Ikeja where I worked. I met my wife at Obalende from where we took the cab. I was not drunk at all.

I also fault the claim that I fought with the policeman because nothing like that happened. He was the one who hit me with his rifle in the eye, so how can a man who could barely see fight again?

And yes, I told them I couldn’t make statement because my eyesight had been affected. I cannot see with one eye right now. I told our family lawyer about this and he said he would write a petition where he will state the case for us."