Christopher Oji
There was pandemonium Wednesday afternoon as a policeman teargassed a young man to death at the Fagba area of Iju, Lagos.
The policeman is attached to the Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) stationed in front of an eatery near Fagba traffic light.
It was gathered that the deceased whose identity was not yet known was having a quarrel with a Scavenger over a generating set.
It was gathered that the scavenger had bought a used power generating set from the deceased who a man identified as Brother Sunny.
It was gathered further that the scavenger who did not want to pay Sunday, ran to the police APC to report to the officers that he had discovered a man who allegedly stole a generating set.
The policemen allegedly arrested Sunday and began to interrogate him. Sunday was said to have told the police that he was the owner of the generating set.
A witness, Mr Steven Madu said: “The deceased while being interrogated maintained that he was the owner of the generator and that he had a receipt to prove his innocence; but one of the policemen who was overzealous just brought out a teargas can and sprayed it on the deceased’s face. Even while the deceased was begging that he was asthmatic, the policeman emptied the teargas canister on him. We all took to our heels because of the danger of the teargas. When we returned, we meet the body of Sunday.
“We were told by a woman believed to be the deceased’s wife that the victim was asthmatic.
“Now, the question is why did the policeman use tear bass on the man? Why the torture even when the man kept shouting that he was innocent and that he was asthmatic?
“We want the police high command to investigate the matter and bring the mobile policeman and his colleagues who watched him torture Sunday to death. We are aware that the policemen guarding the APC have turned the place to a police station where they used to extort members of the public and beat up those who fail to pay tolls to them. They are not fighting crime; they are there for extortion,” he said.