Policemen attached to Ashi Police Station in Ibadan, Oyo State, have broken the arm of Opeyemi Abdullah, a fashion entrepreneur and model.

The incident occurred on Thursday when four policemen stationed at a checkpoint on Oke Agbara Church Road, linking Ashi Junction to Bodija, Ibadan, stopped a commercial motorcycle Abdullah had boarded.

One of the policemen enforced an invasive search of his bags, and when he failed to find anything incriminating, he invited his colleague to search again.

Frustrated by the time-wasting efforts, the model asked why a second search was necessary.

This protest did not sit well with the policemen. They then said they would take Abdullah to their station.

He agreed, but they then brought out handcuffs to put on his wrists. This was when things went downhill.

“The second officer instructed me to bring out all the items one by one,” Abdullah explained to FIJ.

“I calmly explained that the first officer had already thoroughly checked the bags. However, despite this, I still complied and removed all the items again for inspection.

“Following this, I was accused of ‘talking to officers anyhow’, and was told that I would be taken to the police station to write an apology letter. I did not refuse to go to the station.

“However, the officer insisted that I must be handcuffed. I objected to being handcuffed, as I was not resisting arrest and had fully cooperated throughout the encounter.

“At that point, about four police officers, together with another individual, forcefully restrained and assaulted me. I was overpowered and beaten to the extent that I could no longer defend myself. During this incident, my hand was seriously injured and later confirmed to be broken.

“Despite the obvious injury and broken condition of my hand, the officers still handcuffed my injured hand and transported me to the Ashi Police Station. No illegal items, weapons, or incriminating materials were found on me at any time, as the bags contained only clothing items related to my fashion business.”

Abdullah thought he would find some succour at the station, but things got worse.

When he arrived there, he met the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of the station.

Unfortunately, the DPO was no good. The man looked at his condition and deemed the assaulted man lucky.

Abdullah remembers him saying, “You are lucky my men were not drunk. They would have shot you dead.”

On Monday evening, FIJ spoke with Olushola Ayanlade, spokesman for the Oyo State Police Command, via WhatsApp. After narrating the experience to him, Ayanlade said, “The team have been identified and invited for CP’s interview.”

On Tuesday morning. Abdullah visited the Command after getting his daily dose of injections.

There, he identified three of the policemen, and Femi Haruna, the Commissioner of Police (CP), ordered that they be detained.

Abdullah, who had spent over N250,000 treating himself, rejected the policemen’s offer to compensate him.

“I just want to recover and get back to work to feed myself,” he told FIJ.

He also thanked FIJ for intervening and working towards bringing the policemen to book.

“Thank you very much, sir,” he told this reporter. “I appreciate all that you have done for me.”