Another victim of police brutality has narrated his sordid travails in the hands of the mobile police, popularly referred to as MOPOL.
The victim, Chuks Ikedigwe who resides in Lagos recounted how he was manhandled and brutalized by the officer at Bank PHB, now known as Keystone bank, for only complaining about an unusual delay in the service delivery of the bank staff.
According to him, “I was directed by my boss to rush and hurriedly cash money at BankPHB (as it was called then) on 9th of March, 2011. We discovered we needed more money in the office at the point of leaving the office to site. I got to the Bank’s branch at Thomas Street, Apapa Road, Ebute Metta, Lagos almost immediately as I was sent. The queue wasn’t particularly much. However, the branch only had two cashiers attending to customers. But the queue persisted for long as the bank staff took several minutes attending to one customer and at times, allowing people they know jump the queue.
“When I couldn’t take it any longer, I complained to the Cash and Teller staff about the unusual delay. My complaint unfortunately coincided with one of the officers in the bank on white uniform coming to that side of the banking hall. I was surprised when the officer left and after few minutes, returned with one of the MOPOL men attached to the bank. The MOPOL operative approached me and asked me to leave the banking hall immediately. I told him to allow me cash my money and leave since it was almost my turn.
“It was as if my pleading to be allowed to cash money before leaving angered him as he descended on me immediately I dropped my cheque and ID card at the counter. He started beating me, he hit me with the butt of his gun, kicked me all over, threw punches all over my face and head, drew me on the floor and practically flung me out through the security door and I landed on the paved floor outside the bank building. He celebrated his violence on me and promised to come out and continue if I do not leave the bank premises.
“While this was happening, none of the staff in the bank did anything to stop him. Both the junior and senior staff looked the other way while the beating lasted. None of them came outside to see the damage done to me. It’s only when my Boss came after waiting endlessly and his calls not getting answered or returned during my ordeal that a staff came out. She pleaded for my boss to come in and he refused. She is the person that know how she got my money and my ID card.
“I spent 2 days in the hospital. On my discharge, I had to go back to the bank to see if I can get the name of the MOPOL. There was no way I can get his name on the day of the ordeal as I could hardly see.
“Fortunately, I saw him after the white uniform wearing officer that caused the beating had lied that he didn’t come to work. As I was about leaving, he appeared from the back of the building. I went over to him to ask if he saw my missing items from his beating spree. Of course, I came for his name and possibly his service number and he claiming not to see the items meant nothing to me. I believe he noticed that I was after his name and then said to me ‘there is nothing you can do. I trust this bank. Nobody in the past has done anything and you can’t do anything’”.
“His name is Sergeant Musa Seni and with the name, we were able to file our suit to seek redress about 3 weeks later. I was determined to get justice and nothing could deter me.
“As expected, the MOPOL guy didn’t file any defence and wasn’t represented but the bank appeared with all manners of lies to defend the indefensible. Of course, their story had its expected holes. We were still in court when the bank’s name was changed. I remember we had to borrow to amend our process and serve since we didn’t anticipate such additional cost.
“The case was moving smoothly at Igbosere High Court until the day the judge handling case announced in an open court that his birthday was in about 2 weeks time. After his Lordship’s birthday, everything about the case changed. All kinds of abnormalities came up. Some times he will go to seminar on the day of the case. Other days, he will call when we are already seated for hours to ask that those with ‘contentious case’ should pick another date as he will only attend to non-contentious suits (whatever that means). At the end of the day, it will be only our case that is classified as such. Sometimes, one or two other cases will be added to the category not to make it so obvious. The day he will be gracious to listen to us, it will be a battle with us. He will bring technicality upon technicalities. It got so bad that even lawyers that came for other cases in the court will be forced to voice their disapproval. It practically became a battle between the judge and us. All the defence lawyer did was announce his appearance and only answer ‘yes’ when the judge ask if he was satisfied with the technicalities he was inventing. Of course, Yes! And who in his right senses will disagree when the judge was the one doing the argument on his behalf?
“Since we knew where the case was headed. We had 2 options: allow the judge deliver his unfavourable verdict by dismissing it on technical grounds and we go on appeal or withdraw the case and refile in another court. Of course, we were sure of winning on appeal since his invented technicalities carries no weight. We were also aware that the Appeal Court can only order a retrial in the high court. Thus, we opted for the latter in other to save time and possibly reduce cost.
“After few weeks, we were back to another Court in search of justice. It was the Federal High Court at Ikoyi were Justice Okon Abang presided as the judge. Initially, we were convinced that ‘samson has finally come to justice’ under his Lordship. The setting for justice was what we saw initially but like a typical Nigerian court, it wasn’t different from others.
“I felt disappointed when it reached to the point that my case file was declared missing from the court and was nowhere to be found. The court officials claimed to be searching for the file as days soon rolled into weeks and months. While the search went on, our case still get listed but only for mention as the judge only minuted proceedings on a piece of paper. He always advised that we liaise with the court registrar for a proper search and we kept disturbing the registrar.
“After a while, the registrar advised I stopped wasting my time coming to the court. He said we will be communicated once the case file is found since he has my number and that of my lawyer. I have never failed to imagine how a case file can get missing in a courtroom that small. The Justice Okon Abang court at Federal High Court annex, Ikoyi remains the smallest court room I have seen till date.
“The next time we checked to know the status of the suit and if the case file has been found since we didn’t hear from the court. We discovered that the unexpected has happened. The case has been struck out by the judge. When and how the case file was found for it to have been struck out almost immediately is a question that no one has answered till date. Even the defence lawyer wasn’t in court on the day the case was struck out as he stopped appearing before we were convinced to stop coming too as we didn’t agree to that suggestion initially. So, who moved the motion or who asked for the case to be struck out? Wonders full this country.
“No matter how long this case takes, I will definitely get justice. If the system and the bank fails to give me justice. I will personally take justice to Keystone Bank Plc and Musa Seni. They can’t treat me less than a slave for merely asking for better service and think they will go scot free. They can’t brutalize me for committing no crime, bribe their way through the system to ensure that justice is also denied and think that is the end?
