LASU student brutalised by Task Force for videoing operation

A 500-level student of the Lagos state University, Sewuese Matthew, has been allegedly brutalised by
members of the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit for videoing their operations with her phone. The 28-year-old student of Business Administration at the school sustained a broken arm and some injuries on her face following the attack. She was reportedly attacked at Durosimi-Etti Drive, in Lekki Phase 1 area when she began videoing the task force members who stormed the area to seize the machine of a vulcanizer tending to her deflated tyre on grounds that the machine was constituting environmental nuisance.
The report equally said her sister, Lilian Ifemeludike who had gone there with her was equally brutalized. “On Wednesday, February 8, my sister and I were going out of the estate in her car, when the car had a flat tyre. While we were at the vulcanizer’s place trying to fix the tyre, the task force officials stormed the area and packed by the roadside.” “There was chaos and some people were filming what was happening. I also tried to do so while my sister was pleading with them. A tall policeman among them walked up to me, snatched the phone and started punching me.” “I ran to my sister, crying. He smashed the phone on the ground and she picked it. The officer and other policemen chased her and started hitting her until they collected the phone from her. I rushed there and pleaded with them to leave her. They punched me in the mouth, face and neck. I also broke my hand.” She said they reported the case to the task force office in Oshodi where the force’s Chairman, SP Olayinka Egbeyemi vehemently condemned the assault. However, she said, when the officials met them at the office, they told their boss that they(students) insulted them. At this, SP Egbeyemi remanded them in Kirikiri prison. “But when the officials appeared before the chairman, they told him a different story, saying we insulted them. The chairman then vowed to deal with us and we were detained. The next morning, they charged us to court in Ogba. I could not meet up my bail conditions that day, so I was taken to the Kirikiri Prison without my injuries being treated. I was released on Friday when the bail was perfected and I went to the Lagos Island General Hospital for treatment,”