Police officers beat civil defence officer publicly in Ondo

The police and civil defense gave different versions of the story.

An officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) was on Saturday beaten in public by police officers in Ondo State.

The incident, which happened at Ado Junction, along Akure/Owo Expressway at about 6 p.m., disrupted free flow of traffic for several hours.

Witnesses said the argument that led to fight ensued when the policemen asked for the particulars of the unregistered car that the NSCDC officer was driving.

The argument led to a scuffle between the civil defence official and the police officers. After beating the lone civil defence official, later identified as Seun, the police officers handcuffed him and took him to Ijapo Police Station.

Commenting on the development, the spokesperson of the NSCDC in Ondo, Kayode Balogun, said the officer, whom he identified as Inspector Seun, was allegedly assaulted by police officers from Ijapo

Division while coming from Abuja with a Volkswagen Golf Car.

Mr. Balogun explained that the officer was stopped by the policemen at Ado Junction.

“Seun, who was in uniform, coming from Abuja with his car, the policemen at Ado Junction stopped him and asked for the particulars of his car. As he was trying to explain to them why he was yet to get the particulars from a Cooperative Society, through which he bought the car, one of them just slapped him,” Mr. Balogun said.

“Before he knew what was happening, the rest of them have joined in the beating. After beating him, they tied him to his car with handcuff, tore his clothes, and detained him at Ijapo Police station.”

However the spokesperson of the Ondo State Police Command, Wole Ogodo, said it was the assaulted NSCDC officer that first slapped the police officer who demanded for his vehicle particulars.

Mr. Ogodo explained that as the NSCDC officer was stopped by the police officer on duty for driving an unregistered vehicle.

“The Civil Defence officer was on mufti, the policemen did not know him, he was driving an unregistered vehicle and was stopped, and a policeman requested for the particulars of his vehicle, instead

of introducing himself gently to the Corporal, he just slapped the Corporal to an extent that he tore his clothe,” the police spokesperson said.