BUT for the intervention of Lagos State Govenor Akinwunmi Ambode, an artisan, Dahiru Lawal, would have paid dearly for breaking the car windscreen of an Air Force cadet. The Nation report.
The governor got him out of the trunk of the Chrysler Stratus car marked KRD 267DV where he was kept for the breaking the windscreen.
Cadets Peters Solomon and his colleague, Abdullahi Fahad, who claimed to be attached to the Air Force Base in Ikeja, Lagos had forced Lawal into the car trunk at Mile 12, after dragging him on the ground.
Ambode, who was returning from Agbowa, swiftly intervened, wondering what Lawal did to warrant such treatment.
The cadets told reporters that they put Lawal in the car trunk for trying to escape after breaking the windscreen.
Lawal, they claimed, ran into the nearby market where they chased and caught him.
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. We have 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 I did not lock the boot.”
Fahad said he and Peters were along Mile 12 after visiting a friend when they heard a knack on their windscreen and they saw Lawal attempting to escape.
“We now ran inside the market and dragged him (Lawal) down. I was even asking who he is working with because I want to see his Oga since I know he cannot repair my damaged windscreen. I want to see the man he is working with so that we can settle everything with him. I now told my colleague that we should hand him over to Air Force police at the Air Force Base,” Fahad said.
Reliving his ordeal, 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 Air Force men might do to him.
He said: “I ran into the market and they pursued me and caught me inside the market. 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,” Lawal said.
The artisan said he lost his cell phone and N5, 000 cash, which he had on him while being dragged on the floor.
The governor has ordered that the suspects be handed over to the police.