Traffic officers in Benin, Edo
State at about 4pm yesterday allegedly beat a fifty-one-year-old mother of six
Joy Agboghide for obstructing traffic with her car.
The incident which occurred
in front of the headquarters of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company was
reported to have been sparked off by an argument between an officer and the
woman who had insisted that she reverse her vehicle.
Joy Agboghide had explained
that she had stopped to allow about four cars pass through the congested road
and the officer had angrily returned to the BEDC premises with some other
soldiers attached to BEDC. The soldiers were then reported to have beaten the
woman up after which she was rushed to the Central Hospital, Benin, where she
received treatment.
Speaking to Punch correspondents,
the woman explained, a soldier told me to reverse and I explained that I had
waited for some vehicles to pass. But he said, ‘Do you know who you are talking
to? Reverse!’ Before I knew it, he used his gun to hit my windscreen.
She continued, “I came out
and asked him what I had done and he said I should wait. He went into the BEDC
premises and came out with some soldiers who descended on me. He said they
should clear me off the road. But as he tried to enter his vehicle, I pulled
him and told him to pay for the damage done to my car.”
The officer, who was later
identified as an officer in the Nigerian Air Force and not Nigerian Army by
Captain Jonah Unuakhalu, Spokesman for the 4 Brigade Command of the Nigerian
Army, is said to be under investigations.
Punch
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