Policemen battered and stripped me naked - Man tells Lagos panel

A petitioner who testified before the Lagos State Judicial Panel on Restitution for victims of SARS and other related matters accused the Nigeria Police Force of battering him.

Identified as Monday Ojon, he was amongst the 10 petitioners listed for hearing.

Channels Tv said the panel reserved judgment till a later date in three of the petitions. It also heard the encounter between a petitioner Ojon and the Nigerian police.

Ojon testified that he was stripped naked and beaten by a police officer even when he did not commit any offence.

“On 4th December 2013, I was coming from CMS, going to Tinubu, a policeman Mr. Kabiru with force number 354962, he was coming with a stick and gun in both hands respectively, and he asked where I was going? I told him I was going to Tinubu. He said I should kneel down, I asked for what? He said I should kneel down now and he started to beat me with the stick until the stick got broken into pieces,” he said.

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“He picked another plank and started beating me with it until I knelt down. He told me to remove my clothes, but I refused and started shouting which attracted passers-by, he said he would waste me and cocked the gunshot it into the air. He told me to undress naked, he then told me to start crawling from that point to CMS bus stop with others whom we met on the way.

“Some motorists who accosted him were threatened and they left. He also told a man and a girl to kneel down and when they refused, he shot into the air. A friend and motorcyclist who saw me asked what I did, when I told him what happened, he said he was going to report at Adeniji Adele police station.

“A fellow policeman who saw us, talked to him privately and asked for my cloth. I told him that my cloth was at the other end, he then told me to go and take my cloth and go. Suddenly, a lion building police patrol van with the DPO came to the scene and took me to lion building and told me to go and treat myself because I had been battered.”

According to the petitioner, efforts to get justice at the Lion Building Police Station did not yield any results. Instead he says he was offered a paltry ₦100, 000 which he refused.

The petitioner is seeking adequate compensation and he wants the panel to help him get justice against the police office, Mr. Kabiru who he alleged committed the assault.