By Anita Ahmed

Chief Executive Officer, Ronade Travels and Tours , Mrs Adeniyi Aderonke, weekend accused a policeman and officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management ,LASTMA, of assaulting her and forcefully collecting her mobile telephone from her for two years,in Ikotun area of Lagos.

She lamented that efforts to retrieve her phone met a brick wall, thereby calling on Police and LASTMA authorities to prevail on their men to release her phone to her.

Briefing journalists of her plight, Aderionke, recalled how she rushed out of her office on suit 35,Kasam plaza, Ikotun road, in September 2020, following a disturbing noise outside.

She said she saw some LASTMA officials accompanied by armed policemen impounding vehicles parked at the bus-stop. She added that she was forced to go back into the plaza when she noticed some of the officials were pointing in her direction.

Things took a different dimension , as the officials with an armed policeman she identified as Sergeant Idris Samson , according to her, barged into the plaza, requesting to see her.

Narrating, she said, “ They accused me of recording them and requested to check my phone, which was in my office. I refused initially but later released the phone when they threatened me with guns. They collected my phone, promised to return it after checking it but never did. When I ran after them, accompanied by my colleagues from the plaza, they insisted I must follow them to the office.

“By the time my husband and I went to their office , I identified Sergeant Idris Samson from his tag, as the policeman that collected my phone and threatened me with his gun. He told me to go and beg some LASTMA officials before they would return it. I spent four hours waiting for my phone. One of the officers told me to come the next day, only to be told that an unknown soldier collected the phone from me.

“My husband pleaded with the senior officer we met to return the phone that it was my office line. But he said I was rude and swore that I would never get the phone back.

“We reported the case at the Ikotun Police station. But when Sergeant Samson was summoned by the DPO, he denied collecting my phone and denied pointing his gun at me. The case was transferred to Zone 2 Command, Onikan. My lawyer has also petitioned the AIG Zone 2. Again, Sergeant Samson was summoned there. He initially denied collecting my phone, but later agreed after he was asked to state the truth and settle with me, with a threat to make him face an Orderly Room Trial. He was given a day to return the phone to me . But he has not till date. I need that phone because it contains a lot of my business partners contacts”.

Sources at Zone 2, confirmed that the matter was reported there and that efforts to retrive the phone were ongoing.