SOME Police trainees at the Nigeria Police Training School, Ilorin, Kwara State have allegedly beaten up the chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA Ilorin branch, Mohammed Akande and one other at the premises of the school.
It was also gathered that the other lawyer, Luqman Olanrewaju, was stripped of his clothes leaving him only with his underwears before the police trainees detained him in the cell
The incident reportedly occurred when the lawyer was going to render a legal service to his client said to be a tyre seller, who was held up at the traffic section of the state police command.
The traffic section, it was gathered, shares premises with the training school and the “A” Division of the command.
The lawyer was said to be passing through a spot at the school on his way to the traffic section when he was accosted by the police trainees, who were said to be about 20 in number.
The trainees reportedly accused him of passing through the spot reserved only for certain government functionaries but he was reported to have said that he did that unintentionally, adding that he’s a lawyer going to meet with his client at the traffic section.
Further questioning by the trainees was said to have led to altercations between the two sides, while the trainees reportedly beat up the lawyer and clamped him into detention.
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The NBA chairman, who was alerted of the development, visited the school to secure the release of his colleague member, allegedly ended up suffering the same fate in the hands of the trainees.
“About 20 of them later gathered, and they started calling me a fake lawyer to which I said I’m not. They asked me to produce my identity card, and I told them that I’m a private lawyer that they should find out that lawyers don’t always carry identity cards around.
“At this point, they pounced on me slapping and kicking me, while some used the stick gun in their hands to beat me severely. At a point, they removed my shirt and trouser leaving me with my boxer and singlet and threw me up in the air to fall on the ground. They later carry me and dumped me in their cell
“There is one particular woman, Adeyemi Mulikat, maybe one of their teachers who supervised my beating, and said if luck is against me and I stay in the cell till the following morning, she would ensure that I’m killed there,” he said.
The lawyer, however, said that it was his client who was waiting for him in the traffic section that got attracted to the huge crowd at the gate and saw the tragedy that had befallen him who called other lawyers, with the NBA Ilorin chairman who all later came to the venue to rescue him.
The NBA chairman who also recounted his experience stated: ” I received a distress call from one of our colleagues that a member is in crisis at the A division police station, at challenge area and we all went there. It was when we got there that we knew that the incident occurred at the police training school section, and straight we met the headmaster who invited us to his office.
“He told us that the whole issue is about thoroughfare at the gate, that the lawyer was very rude, and he ordered his men to lock him up, then I asked him to produce the lawyer from their cell.
“My brother, when I saw my colleague I was almost crying. He was in boxer and singlet, so ruffled with scars of beaten all over his body. Not even an armed robber, deserve that kind of inhuman treatment. So, I told them to kill the lawyer having beaten him this much because of thoroughfare incident.
“In the process, altercations ensued between us and l was also beaten by his officers, my necktie was pulled severally and my shirt was roughened. It was in the process that the commandant of the college got wind of the development and invited us all to his office.
“In all fairness to the commandant, when he was told about the incident and saw the lawyer in his condition, he asked all those who carried out the act to be detained immediately and we all left the place.”
Spokesman of the state police command, Ajayi Okasanmi who confirmed the incident said the state police commissioner, Bolshoi Fafowora was already taking action on it.
He stated: “There is a place called sentry around the gate of the school, its only governor, president and ambassador that could stand on that place. I was told people pass through that place and one of them happens to be a lawyer. He was caught, and you know, everybody like proving a point, the lawyer, I learnt was beaten.
“The school is not under the command but the DIG. But the CP who is the most senior officer here is meeting with the lawyers and those who are concerned and I’m assuring you that anyone caught on the right side of the law would be appropriately sanctioned.”
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