Lagos DPO allegedly breaks carpenter’s hand, leg

Lagos DPO and carpenter

The Divisional Police Officer in charge of the Ijora-Badia Police Division, Lagos State, Rotimi Odutona, has been accused of fracturing the left hand and leg of a carpenter, Saheed Akinboye.

The DPO allegedly broke the carpenter’s hand and leg while assaulting him at the station, The Punch reports.

It was gathered that Mr Akinboye, accompanied by Rasaq Balogun and Modupe Ojediran, had gone to the station on Monday to recover six dozens of chairs that were seized during a raid by police operatives on Sunday following a clash by suspected cultists in the Ijora-Badia area of the state.

The clash in Ijora-Badia resulted in the death of a suspected cult member, known as Tansho, while Akinboye, who runs a rental business as a side trade, was said to be packing the chairs he had rented out to Mr Balogun, when the policemen confiscated the chairs.

Akinboye said Mr Odutona, who never gave him an opportunity to explain himself at the station, used a baton to beat him repeatedly till his hand and leg got fractured.

The carpenter said, “He beat me repeatedly; I begged him to hear me out but he never listened. He kept on beating me till my left hand and leg got fractured; after the assault, he pushed me out of the station and I landed on the floor. I lost my Tecno phone and the sum of N80,000 in the process.

“I could not walk nor use my hand; the traders outside the station saw how I was bundled out. It was Mr Balogun and Mrs Ojediran, who got a vehicle that took me to a local bone setter, who has been attending to my hand and leg.”

Akinboye, who is demanding justice for the assault on him by Odutona, said he had already spent about N25,000 on treatment and had been suffering intense agony.

Lagos police spokesperson, Chike Oti, said Odutona had denied the allegation but added that the state Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, had ordered a probe into the matter.