Douglas Ogbakwa, a Benin-based lawyer, has vowed to sue the police for assault and endangering his life at the Azia Junction checkpoint on the Onitsha-Owerri route on Thursday.
Ogbankwa told reporters in Benin, Edo State, on Friday that his ordeal began when the public vehicle he boarded arrived at the said junction and he watched how Nigerians were being mistreated and their mobile phones were taken for no cause.
When the occupants in his car were going to be molested by the cops, he announced himself as a lawyer, according to Ogbankwa.
He said a senior officer got angry and assaulted him, threatening that he would kill him “and nothing would happen.”
He said, “I was coming from Owerri in a public transport and our vehicle and others were stopped by the rude policemen at Azia Junction. The policemen led by a man who introduced himself as second-in-command of Orlu Area Command held me down at about 09:38 hours for over one hour on the excuse that I took a photograph of their Armoured Personnel Carrier which was a ploy to seize my phone.
“People who regularly ply the road told me this is the way they seize people’s phones and later sell them. The so-called second-in-command even told me categorically that he was going to seize my phone and sell it at Akwa market.
“The funniest thing; the rank and file were even more courteous as they behaved like officers while the officer behaved like the junior officers.
“As the argument continued, some passengers approached the scene to plead on my behalf, but he cocked his gun and was about shooting which made them flee.”
Ogbakwa said he had ordered his chamber to file a lawsuit of N100m against the Nigeria Police for infringing on his fundamental human rights.
He also urged the Inspector-General of Police and Imo State Commissioner of Police to, as a matter of urgency, dismantle the checkpoint at the junction “to save the common Nigerians from this inhuman policemen.”