Oyo commissioner beaten to pulp, detained by police

By Jackson Udom - 26.11.2007

OYO State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Alhaji Majekodunmi Aborode, was on Saturday beaten up and detained for five hours at the Akobo police station, Ibadan, while monitoring the monthly environmental cleaning exercise.

Narrating his ordeal to the Nigerian Tribune on Sunday, the commissioner called on the state police command to institute a full scale investigation into the matter.

According to Aborode, “I was on a patrol of the state to monitor the environmental cleaning exercise and when we got to Akobo bridge area, I had to stop and order our cleaners to evacuate the heap of refuse in the area.

As clearing of the refuse was on, a police inspector appeared from nowhere and ordered that we should leave the place, claiming that the car was causing traffic hold-up when in actual fact, there was no vehicular movement at that time,” he noted.

Aborode said “the police inspector threatened to deflate the tyres of the vehicle if we did not leave and, true to his threat, he went ahead to deflate the tyres. And at this point, my orderly went to caution him against his action only to deal a serious blow on the innocent youngman. It was at this point that I alighted out of the car to rescue my orderly.

“Immediately the police officer saw me, he pounced on me and dealt a blow to my forehead and destroyed my eye glasses. When the people around started cautioning him, he came to his senses and wanted to run. At that point, I held him and told one of my aides to run to the DPO to report the matter,” he stressed.

He noted that “before those we sent to the police station could get there, one of the police officers at the scene radioed the DPO to tell him a different side of the story. When we got to the station, what the DPO could say was that I was the one that beat up the police officer. And when I told him that I could not do that as a member of the state executive council, he said ‘and so what?’

“Even without hearing from me, the DPO ordered that I be put in the cell with my orderly for five hours, despite the fact that ACP Lakanu had called him to intimate him that I was a serving commissioner in the state,” he said.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) ASP Bisi Okuwobi, denied that a police officer assaulted the commissioner, saying that it was the commissioner who assaulted the senior police officer.

According to the police image maker “the Commissioner for Environment was never assaulted by the police officer who was carrying out his lawful duties. In fact, if not for the fact that there was no court session on Saturday, he would have been arraigned immediately for engaging in an act unbecoming of a person of his status.”