Should I say for every Nigeria or let me put it like this, for every Lagosian, there is a 100% chance that you must have had an encounter with any of the armed forces or be in a place whereby it happened because it's like a trend here and even though we all know it is an illegal assault, it keeps happening.
Police brutality was what lead to the peaceful protest in 2020 that later turns into a nightmare for most of us to date. What worries me most is that there was a law passed that they should not do things like this again and we have seen cases whereby we still hear that the force man who harassed someone has been arrested and charged to court but what happens after, we don't know. What we know is that this thing keeps happening almost every day which sums it all up that no action is taken against these people but if it was a case of a civilian harassing a force man then the whole neighborhood will be in chaos which is not fair but they don't care.
I have had few encounters with the force people and this happened to be the Police. I see no reason why I was arrested but they are always right and I'm always wrong but this event also taught me one of the greatest lessons of my life and this was how it happen.
I lived in the same compound where a guest house that also has a bar was situated. It was around 9 in the morning, I went inside the bar because most of the workers are my friend and I'm very close to the owner's family, I run errands for them anytime and some people thought I was one of their children but thank God I'm not.
The policemen walked into the bar that morning and asked me what I was doing, which I honestly said what I love in the compound but they didn't even want to listen to me and the next thing was that they were dragging me outside while I was trying to explain myself and even the bar boy was also explaining on my behalf. They didn't even want to listen and while one was pushing me to enter their truck, another was pointing his gun to my face like I was a criminal and to avoid something that could cost my life, I had to cooperate with them but the most things that amaze me was the wife of the owner of the bar was outside and she was watching as I was been bundled into the truck and she didn't flinch even after I called her name, at that point I don't know what to do because I thought I had someone like my mom to look after me but I was wrong.
I got into their van and they drove off, they had to make another stop to arrest some bike men and while they wanted to come out and perform their devilish duty, one was about to put handcuff in my hand which was when I had to fight back for my life asking him what my offense was and he just stood there staring at me like a clock, I was shouting and raising my voice with my childish strong face so he locked the door and went to join the others.
I got to the station and they handed me over to another officer, she gave me pen and asked me to write my statement. I told her I don't even know why I was there and I can't write anything, she was trying to convince me to and also threaten me but I was just determined not to write anything because I did nothing wrong.
After some hours, the manager of the bar came and after talking to the policemen, one man came to meet the policewoman and told her that I was a bad market.
I was to leave on bail and even though I was staring at bail is free, I still had to pay 5000 and this was far back as 2016, the manager was generous enough to split the bill with me.
I went straight to my room and that day I learned that no one can be like your family and I stopped treating those particular people as if we were family and I only run errands for her when I like and it got to a time, I stopped doing anything for them. Ever since that day, I have hated the police and never wish them well again.
So that was just part of my experience with them. Don't forget to let love lead.
