The death of an Onitsha-based cleric, Olusegun Adetunji, has led to the detention of some officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps.
The officers were attached to the Abudu Unit in Edo State.
This was made public by the national spokesperson for the FRSC, Olusegun Ogungbemide on Thursday.
According to Punch, the wife of the deceased, Yemisi Adetunji said that the incident occurred last Thursday while she was travelling with her husband from Onitsha to Ibadan when the FRSC officers stopped the vehicle the couple was in.
She narrated that she witnessed how the officers brutalised her husband, teargassed his face and left the scene with him in their vehicle before she was informed about his death.
She noted that after the engagement between the FRSC officers and the driver, one of the officers requested to sit in the front seat and asked the passenger sitting in front to move to the back seat, an instruction the passenger disregarded.
Mrs Adetunji noted that after the driver left with the officer, the latter claimed that the former had driven past their office, where he had wanted to stop.
She said, “I was travelling with my husband from Onitsha when the FRSC officers stopped our vehicle. We were seven on the bus, including the driver. The driver had a conversation with them, and one of the officers requested to sit in the front seat, but the passenger who was sitting in the front seat declined.
“The officer jumped into the front seat and asked the driver to take him to their office, but the driver drove past the office. Other officers arrived and blocked our vehicle. They dragged the driver out and started to beat him, and they sprayed tear gas inside the vehicle.
“The officer who demanded to sit in the front seat attacked my husband and started beating him, and he also sprayed tear gas on his face, saying that he refused to come down for him. After this, they decided to leave with the vehicle.”
She narrated that despite her plea that they should consider her husband’s age, the officer did not yield, and when they were about to leave with the vehicle, her husband requested to pick up his luggage, which they declined.
The cleric’s wife noted that when her husband insisted that he should be allowed to pick up his luggage, the officers asked him to sit at the back of their Hilux vehicle and follow them to their office, where he would be allowed to take his bag.
She continued, “He followed their vehicle and after a while, I called to know where he was. I was informed by the person who picked up the call that he was dead. I went to where they were and saw his dead body.
“We were taken to the police station, and the police detained the officers. I don’t know what to say again because I am devastated by the incident.”
He explained that the bus driver who was arrested for an infraction attempted to arrest one of the FRSC officers.
He added that the deceased became unwell during the process of the arrest and later died in the hospital.
He said, “A mobile patrol arrested a bus driver for infraction and in our usual way, our official entered the bus to escort the vehicle down to the mobile court arena, and in the process, the driver abducted the marshal by going off their route.
“It took the efforts of other patrol teams to get the driver to stop, and they eventually succeeded in getting the vehicle arrested and securing the release of the abducted officer.
“So, all other passengers moved their items from the vehicle, and when the patrol team was going to the mobile court arena, the person in question insisted on joining them. It was in the process that they discovered that he was showing some unpleasant symptoms that led him to be taken to the hospital, where he was eventually confirmed dead.
“The police took over the case, and the investigation is ongoing to confirm what transpired. So, I learnt the police took into custody the patrol team and driver of the bus of the vehicle involved.”
On the alleged use of teargas by the FRSC officers, he said, “I need to get the information from the police. I wouldn’t know, but our mode of operation does not attract the use of tear gas against passengers, which I will say is strongly disapproved of our style of operation.
“So, if, actually, at the end of the investigation, it is confirmed that that was what played out, then the officers will have to face the music.”
