A naval officer, Adejobi Samson, has been arrested for assaulting an Assistant Superintendent of Police, identified simply as Alimi at Aleje in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
it gathered that the incident happened on September 5 at about 9:30am while the police officer was controlling traffic.
According to an eyewitness, Adejobi who drove a minibus with number plate AGL- 85-2YA was heading towards the direction of the traffic light when the traffic warden instructed him to stop.
He however attempted to ignore the instruction but Alimi insisted he waited for other motorists to pass.
Angered by the development, Adejobi drove past the traffic light and came back to beat up the police officer.
The eyewitness who craved anonymity said, “Nobody knew he was a naval rating because he was not wearing a uniform. Despite asking him to wait for traffic instructions, he (naval officer) drove past the point.
“The policeman had thought the naval officer had already left and went about his duty, but the man drove some meters away, alighted and walked straight to meet him. He confronted the policeman and the next thing we saw was that he pulled out a horsewhip from his trousers and started to flog the police officer
“Nobody could intervene since he was suspected to be a military officer. Other police officers nearby were immediately alerted and they came to the scene. That was when they discovered that he was a naval officer.”
It was learnt that Adejobi who is a seaman was arrested in the process and taken to a nearby police station where he was detained.
A source at the police station told us on Sunday that the suspect was later moved to the state police headquarters while his vehicle was also impounded.
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the incident.
He said, “A naval officer was arrested for assaulting a police officer. The suspect is in our custody.”