A divisional Police Officer and many other policemen were beaten to a pulp after troops of the Nigerian Army invaded a police station where policemen had publicly disgraced an Army captain.
Men of the Nigerian Army and the Police (Photo:File)
It was drama and panic in Abia state as troops stormed the railway police station in Umuahia on Monday and beat policemen to a pulp before whisking away the divisional police officer (DPO) and other policemen for arresting an army captain who parked his bus at an unauthorised place close to the station.
According to ThisDay, trouble started at about 11 am when the DPO, who just assumed duty last Thursday was driving to his office and saw a bus parked close to the station and alighted from his jeep.
In the characteristic fashion policemen are known for in Nigeria, the DPO fumed as he waited for the car owner to emerge. When the man did, he begged the DPO to allow him remove his car from the spot. All entreaties and pleas fell on deaf ears as the DPO ordered his men to arrest the man.
It was then that the bus owner identified himself as an army captain (in mufti), a revelation that obviously compounded his case, as the DPO got angrier.
“If you are any army captain how many wars have you fought? I have fought in three Boko Haram states and you are resisting my arrest order,” the DPO barked out.
As the drama ensued, a large crowd of onlookers had gathered watching as two police officers struggled to drag the resisting army officer to the police station to no avail. However, as the struggle continued, one of the policemen fired a shot in the air to warn the army officer.
Angry that the army officer was resisting arrest, the railway policemen went berserk and pounced on shop owners, impounded the army officer’s car, and gave him the beating of his life.
However, a lady who knew the army officer having begged the policemen without result, called the army officer's colleagues. That was when the real battle started.
One by one army patrol vans arrived at the scene of the melee from different directions. The first patrol van arrived with four soldiers, who made straight for the police station and were seen remonstrating with the DPO.
About four army vans had arrived with over 20 military men. The atmosphere was so charged as they headed straight to the police station. As the army officers got to the police station, they descended on the DPO and his junior colleagues beating them black and blue before bundling them into vans and drove away to an unknown destination.
Three police patrol vans from the Central Police Station (CPS), Umuahia, arrived at the scene less than five minutes after everything had finished.