Late Adewale Olupitan-Hassan Deserves Justice

The soul of late Adewale Olupitan-Hassan, another citizen murdered by supposed law officers, is now crying for justice. Olupitan-Hassan died 29 July, few days after being brutalised by soldiers in the Obanikoro area of Lagos.
On 15 July, Olupitan-Hassan had the misfortune of driving when a convoy of menacing military men attached to the Flag Staff House, Force Road, Lagos, was passing by the Obanikoro area. In their regular fashion of driving recklessly, the overzealous soldiers tried to force their way through a thick traffic. In the confusion, a vehicle in their convoy reportedly brushed Olupitan-Hassan’s. That resulted in the military car’s side mirror being broken, the soldiers claimed.

That was the undoing of citizen Olupitan-Hassan. A moment of madness followed. The soldiers promptly pounced on the unarmed civilian, first dragging him of his car, before thumping him severally.
But the brutes were not done -they bundled Olupitan-Hassan to the Flag House in Marina, where he was made to replace the ‘broken mirror’, before being released – even though he maintained his innocence. Hours later, the severe beating Olupitan-Hassan had suffered began to take its toll on him. He was rushed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, before being referred to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba. But he sustained too many debilitating injuries, especially to the head, to hang on for long.  Despite doctors’ efforts to save him, Olupitan-Hassan, died few days later, aged 61.

His was another needless death.  It’s even more worrying it was caused by those charged with protecting citizens’ lives, and who are maintained with taxpayers’ money. Many more citizens continue to get brutalised or killed in the hands of those charged with maintaining the law. Many of the incidents go unreported while those reported never result in culprits being punished. Olupitan-Hassan’s case should not go the way of those. This is another innocent citizen, and a bread-winner killed extra-judicially. We demand that justice be served and his killers made to answer for the crime.

The military establishment prides itself on discipline, but its operatives continue to break the laws of the land with impunity. It’s high time, the military’s top brass called its men to order as they are not above the law. Had Olupitan-Hassan’s life not been cut short, he had planned his son’s wedding for 20 October. The Nigerian Army should see to it that its men who had a hand in his death, causing his family untold sorrow, be court-marshalled and handed over to the civil authorities to face the law.