A power-drunk district manager of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Jerry Oche, on Sunday ordered policemen to assault a passenger at the Mobolaji Johnson Railway Station located in Ebute Metta, Lagos.
The passenger, who narrated his experience to SaharaReporters, said the incident happened in the early hours of Sunday around 7:40am.
Trouble started when the passenger, who arrived at the train station at exactly 7:30am and proceeded to buy facemask and also bought food to eat while waiting in the terminal building to buy train ticket, pulled down his facemask to start eating.
“One of the officials there told me I couldn’t pull my mask to eat and I asked why because I was maintaining social distance, the chair arraignment in the terminal building ensured that.
“The Lagos district manager, the staff there called him Mr Jerry, saw us and asked me to come over and I did. Then he asked me to move to somewhere else again and so I told him to stop ordering me around like a child.
“I explained what was happening to him and he said I should go outside and eat, so I asked why because this is not my first time using the train station and people were allowed to eat while sitting in the terminal building waiting for their trains to arrive.
“He said there were rules, so I said okay and pulled my facemask back up so I could go back inside. As I approached the door, he shouted for me to stop,” the passenger narrated.
Immediately Oche, who was visibly angry that the passenger questioned his reason for not allowing him to eat, ordered policemen to come over to the scene and ‘deal with’ him.
“Next thing was that he ordered them not to sell ticket to me before calling policemen to deal with me. All of these because I asked why I couldn’t eat at the terminal.
“The policemen arrived on his order and started assaulting me,” the passenger said.
The passenger went ahead to narrate how the policemen tried to break his mobile phone when he attempted to start recording the attack on him.
“It got really serious, when they noticed I wanted to start recording, they moved to smash my phone but I fought them.
“They only stopped after some people there at the scene started telling them that it was an open space and people will see them assaulting a passenger,” he added.
The passenger had upon arrival in the morning rejected an extortion attempt by some officials of the train station.
“They wanted me to pay N1,000 for the car park at the train station but I refused because I know government doesn’t charge for it,” he said.
