A200L student of Tai Solarin University of Education Ijagun (TASUED) was today beaten black blue by mobile policemen attached to GT Bank on Ibadan Road, Ijebu Ode on the orders of a staff of GT Bank.
The victim, a well-recognized motivational speaker said he went to the bank for a transaction and found a large crowd of people in the banking hall waiting to be attended to. He said it was clear he would be there for a long time, and seeing an unused socket on the wall, decided to use the opportunity to charge his mobile phone.
A member of the bank’s staff picked up the phone and walked away with it. He went up to the banker, apologised for using the socket and explaine that he did not know it was against their policy. He asked to be given his phone. The banker said he was not supposed to charge his mobile there and refused to release the phone to the owner. He gave no condition for the release of the phone.
The student, failing to get the desired attention from the banker, went up to Customer Service and laid a complaint and requested that his phone be released to him. He said the officers there asked him to ‘go and beg’ the man who seized the phone. He explained he had done that in the first instance without result and queried why the officer would want to be begged. He explained that had apologised for charging his phone and explained he did that in ignorance. The student then threatened that he would create an online scene if his phone was not released to him.
According to him, the banker called in a mobile policeman attached to the bank, who was in mufti but was fully armed. The banker told the policeman that the student was a cultist and had threatened his life. The policeman forced the student out of the bank and walked him down to Degun Junction (with Ibadan Road, beside Odutola Event Centre) where their Armoured Personnel Carrier is usually parked. Then the mobile policemen beat him up and made him do serries of demeaning exercises including frog jumps. In his words, ‘sir, they beat me mercilessly and made me do frog jump like never before’. This was done in full view of passers-by, some of who know the student but who were unable to come to his rescue. When the policemen had had their fill, they released him because he said he had a test to write in school. They also released his phone to him.
It is hard to tell at this time what part of the Criminal Code the boy had broken by charging his mobile device in his bank. Whatever the offence was, it is a question the bank needs to answer if this is the procedure for handling a case of threat by a cult member against any of their staff as a result of a confrontation. There is also the matter of what is the appropriate procedure when a customer infringes on any of the house rules of his bank. It has to be a house rule because there is no known bank regulation which forbids the boy from using facilities belonging to his bank where such usage does not constitute a security breach or a threat to the safety of the other customers and staff of the bank. Besides, there was no notice warning customers not to use the socket. If the customer had been an influential one, one wonders if he would have been subjected to similar treatment.
One can also only wonder at the allegation levelled against the student. If the allegation were to be true, has the threat to the life of the banker been properly dealt with now? Can the banker walk around in the assurance that he is now safe?
There have been reports in the past of students being maltreated for receiving or making calls in the banking hall after they have been in the bank for hours on end and their families are wondering what is happening. It is common knowledge that banking operations have been very terrible in Ijebu Ode with banks opening to customers between the hours of 11am and 3pm. This usually creates a mad rush and heavy customer presence in banks, and in turn, desperation among the customers to complete their transactions.
Courtesy:
news.ijebumetro.com
