Why I beat female police officers with baton – Suspect

By Isa Isawade

The Osun State Police Command on Tuesday arrested the man, Adekola Jimoh Amobi, captured in a widely circulated viral video assaulting female police officers on lawful traffic control duty with baton and shovel in Ido Osun.

The suspect during parade at the State Police headquarters in Osogbo explained in Yoruba Language what led to his assault on the female police officers.

“On that day, I was riding my okada (motorcycle) to Ido Osun. I turned toward Aje Market following a vehicle from behind.

“The vehicle suddenly applied brake, making me to swerve toward left where the police officers were standing. I dodged the first three officers I met while I quickly applied brake to a halt when I met another set of four officers, in order not to hit them.

“Suddenly, the three I first met came and descended on me. They had not started recording the video then. When I said, ‘Mummy what offence did I commit?’ she just gave me another slap and my bike fell. They also pinned me down and attempted to call their station for them to come and carry me.

“At that stage, I fought back because I didn’t want them to come and carry me and my bike to the station. I had to collect baton from one of them and used it to beat them.

“But when one man came, whether he was a police officer or a civilian I don’t know, he pursued me to the other side of the road. Then a bricklayer holding a shovel used it to hit me. For me to be able to escape, I collected the shovel from him and used it as shield to make possible my escape,” Amobi narrated.

When he was asked by one of the press men where he ran to, he said: “I ran to Ilobu. From there I went to Edo.”

Asked what he now expected from the law over the act he committed, he said: ” I know I misbehaved. The woman I beat wasn’t the one that slapped me. It was the second woman who slapped and hit me with the baton.

“But I have realised that what I did was wrong. I finished doing it before my senses came back to me. It has never happened to me before. This is the first time I would even reach a police station. I am asking for forgiveness. The Police should please forgive and save me from being sent to prison. I ran away because I was afraid.”

Meanwhile, the state’s Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Gotan, during a press conference shortly before parading the suspect vowed that he would be prosecuted in the court of law.