Metro Gists

OPC members in police net for torturing resident

The Lagos State Police Command has apprehended some members of the Odua Peoples Congress for allegedly arresting and torturing a resident, identified as Yakubu, in the Ajegunle area of the state.

Yakubu and his friends had on Tuesday gone to celebrate Sallah at a beach and were on their way home when they were said to have been accosted by the culprits.

According to Police sources, who requested anonymity, Yakubu and his friends had arrived Okorogbo Street, Ajegunle, in a bus and were close to their homes when some OPC men accosted them for wandering at night and demanded money from them.

The group of friends were said to have rebuffed attempts to extort from them by the vigilantes and this allegedly angered the OPC members.

PUNCH Metro gathered that a fight eventually ensued between the OPC members and the victim’s friends.

Yakubu’s friends allegedly fled the scene when they observed that they were being overpowered by the vigilante group. Yakubu was left alone, at the mercy of the OPC.

The OPC members were said to have labelled Yakubu an armed robber, bound him by his hands and feet and tied him to a stick. Yakubu was allegedly tortured for almost an hour and was hit with an object on his head, causing him to sustain near fatal injuries.

The Divisional Police Officer of Ajegunle Police Station, Mr. Abayomi Agbana, a Chief Superintendent of Police , was said to have deployed anti- robbery policemen in the scene after receiving a distress call from a resident on the street.

On sighting the policemen, the vigilantes reportedly took to their heels but were later arrested by the investigating team.

Confirming the incident, Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, said all the suspects had been arrested while the victim was recuperating in a hospital.

Braide said, “It is sad that OPC members could be so barbaric to the extent of torturing a human being over a frivolous allegation such as wandering at night. They could have just taken the man to a police station.

“Nobody should take the laws into his or her hands. Even the police have no right to do what the OPC did to Yakubu.”