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A lawyer, Mr Thompson Oladotun who was a victim of police brutality in 2018 in Lagos, yesterday shared his ordeal with participants at the ongoing Nigerian Bar Association Annual General Conference, NBA-AGC.
Oladokun gave vivid account of the incident amid tears at the break out session session with the theme “Spotlight on Brutality, Abuse of Office and Harassment of Lawyers by Security Agencies.”
The session was moderated by Alternate chairman of the NBA Security Agencies Relations Committee SARC, Mr Alex Muoka.
Oladokun said: “I am happy to be here and I am grateful to the Administration of Olumide Akpata for giving me this opportunity to share my police brutality story with my colleagues
“It started on February 28, 2018. I live in Ajah area of Lagos, so I had a business to close for a client as well as an appointment for a job interview so I boarded a bus going toLekki
“Then came this man in police uniform who came to where I was siting and asked that I vacated my seat for him but I told him that there were other seats available so he could seat on any of them.
“Instead of him to respect himself and move away, he resorted to beating me “black and blue” and pushed me out of the moving vehicle.
“I landed on the express road and in the process, I got my left leg fractured and was left at the mercy of spectators.
“It was a very humiliating and disgraceful experience for me.I respected that police uniform and so, I couldn’t fight back. I was made a laughing stock to the public .
“You may not be able to fathom how I felt as a human, however, I am grateful to the Lagos NBA bar in 2018 led by Mr Chukwuka Ikwuazom for his intervention
“I felt my life flash out of my body; maybe that day I could have been celebrated to a candle light procession.
“Then I thought, if this could happen to me as a lawyer, then it can happen to any lawyer out there.
“Ladies and gentlemen the attitudinal disposition of security agencies to violence calls for serious intervention and if not addressed in no distant time I do not see the pride we will be flaunting as legal practitioners.”
Oladokun called for a personality test as well as a training and retraining of officers before they are recruited into any of security agencies.(Vanguard:Text, excluding headline)
