Governor Ambode rescues man locked in car boot by two Nigerian Air Force cadets

TWO Nigerian Air Force cadets have been remanded in custody after they were arrested by the Lagos State governor Akinwunmi Ambode for illegally arresting a man and locking him in the boot of their car for breaking their windscreen.

 

Cadets Peters Solomon and Abdullahi Fahad, both attached to the Nigerian Air Force Base in Ikeja, had apprehended artisan, Dahiru Lawal in the Mile 12 area of Lagos after he accidentally broke the windscreen of their car. They subsequently locked him in the trunk of their Chrysler Stratus with registration number KRD 267DV, where he might have perished were it not for the passing governor.

 

Driving back from a visit to Agbowa-Ikosi, Governor Ambode spotted the anomaly and swiftly intervened, wondering what Mr Lawal did to warrant such treatment. According to the cadets, they put Mr Lawal in the car trunk for trying to escape after breaking their windscreen as he ran into the nearby market where they chased and caught him.

 

Mr Solomon said: “What happened is that the boy broke the windscreen in front of my car. When I stopped, I asked him to come, the boy ran away, so we had to drag him back and put him in the boot.

 

“I kind of threatened his boss that he is working with and when his boss came and looked at what he did to me, that was when I put him inside the boot. Not that I locked the boot, I only put him inside the boot but did not lock it.”

 

Mr Fahad added that he and Peters were in Mile 12 after visiting a friend when they heard a noise on their windscreen and they saw Lawal attempting to escape. He said they intended to the Air Force Police at the Air Force Base in Ikeja.

 

Reliving his ordeal, Mr Lawal who hails from Kaduna State, said he mistakenly broke the windscreen with the load he carried, adding that he took to his heels because he was afraid of what the Nigerian Air Force men might do to him. He added that he lost his cell phone and N5,000 cash, which he had on him while being dragged on the floor.

 

Mr Lawal said: “I ran into the market and they pursued me and caught me inside the market, where they started beating me and dragged me to their car. The pleas of my boss and people around fell on their deaf ears.

 

"The police also came to plead with them to open the boot but they insisted on taking me away and it was at that point that the convoy of the governor arrived to rescue me from the boot of the car where they kept me.” Governor has ordered that the suspects be handed over to the police.