More facts have emerged on the alleged involvement of the then Divisional Police officer of Ikoyi Police Station, Aishat Haruna, in the alleged brutalisation of a couple by a police Corporal around Ikoyi area of Lagos State.
The driver of the private commercial car that drove the couple on the day of incident, simply identified as Ndubusi, revealed to our correspondent on the telephone that Haruna was not at the scene of incident until when she was informed and she came within five minutes.
It will be recalled that Ejeh Smith and his wife, Grace, were on their way home in a cab around Lekki area of Lagos State when a police Corporal, Dada Ogunsanya, stopped the driver.
After conducting a routine check on the cab and the driving licence of the driver, Ogunsanya beamed his torch on the passengers.
They were said to have protested the action, saying the inner lights of the cab were on and there was no need for the action.
In the ensuing argument, which degenerated into a scuffle, Ogunsanya allegedly tortured the couple by hitting Ejeh in the eye with the butt of his rifle and stepped on his wife’s stomach.
The DPO, Aisha Haruna, was alleged to have backed the police Corporal’s action on her arrival at the scene.
She was also said to have deleted Grace’s recordings of the incidence from her phone.
The police, in its reaction, however, said Ejeh was drunk on the night of the incident and he took a snapshot of the DPO, threatening to send her picture to his pastor who would pray against her.
Recalling the event vividly, Ndubuisi said: “It was the arrival of the DPO that saved the situation, which would have been another story today.
“The couple held and was fighting with the policeman before the DPO came.
“It started after I picked the man and the woman at Obalende and was on our way to Ikoyi when the policemen stopped my vehicle and questioned me on where I was heading to at the hour.
“The policeman later demanded for my driver’s license and asked me to open my cab boot for checking.
“It was while this was going on that the woman in the vehicle started shouting that the policeman should allow them to go because he was delaying them.
“The policeman then flashed his torchlight on them, which made the woman to shout again, complaining that the car inner light was on and should he flash the torchlight on them.
“This made the policeman to become annoyed.
“He asked the two of them to come out, but they refused.
“The policeman dragged the man out by force, which made the woman to come down and started to abuse him.
“There was a struggle between them.
“The policeman slapped the man who replied.
“The fight started between the couple and the policeman when the butt of the rifle carried by the policeman hit the man on the face and he started bleeding.”
Ndubuisi stressed further that it was during the scuffle the DPO was called and she came immediately and separated them before asking for the cause of the fight.
He added: “She asked myself, the couple and the policeman to come to Ikoyi Police Station for statement and later gave hospital papers to the couple to go for treatment at the Police Hospital, Falomo, while she ordered that the policeman’s uniform should be removed and be detained in the cell.
“There was nothing that concerned the DPO in the matter.”
Similarly, a video recorded at the station and made available to our correspondent showed how the couple was harassing the DPO because she collected the woman’s mobile phone, which she claimed was used to record the incident and has sent it to her Pastor and other people.
The man was also shown pointing fingers at Haruna’s face while she was cautioning him to behave and stop pointing his fingers at her but to go and treat himself and his wife at hospital.