The family of a Bureau De Change operator, Modibo Usman, has been thrown into mourning after he died from shock following an encounter with two officers of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority in the Surulere area of Lagos State.
Usman Modibo, who was hypertensive, was being conveyed by his son, Mustapha, to the Foremost Radiology Consultant Hospital on Ogunlana Drive, Surulere, to obtain a test result for his daughter, Ummu, when he had the encounter with the officers.
Mustapha, while speaking to our correspondent on Sunday, said his father also had an appointment with his doctor at the Living Heart Hospital in the Lekki area of the state on the same day.
He said when the two officers stopped him for allegedly disobeying traffic light, his father pleaded that he was on his way for a medical emergency but the officers ignored him.
He alleged that the officers demanded a N50,000 bribe to release the vehicle.
Mustapha said, “My father and I kept pleading with them but the officers refused. My father was even crying and telling them that he had a medical emergency but they said that is what people usually say.
“The two officers ordered us to go to the back seat and they sat at the front and started driving us to the Foremost Radiology Consultant Hospital. My father continued crying that he was in an emergency; they then demanded N50,000 to release us.
“But when we got to the hospital, we quickly rushed to get the test result to show them so we could continue our journey to see his doctor at Lekki but the officers and the vehicle were nowhere to be found when we returned.
“Instantly, my dad suffered a shock and collapsed. I quickly alerted the nurses where we picked my sister’s result and they rushed to attend to him and confirmed him dead.
“When I rushed to the LASTMA office to inform the officers that what they did had caused my father’s death, they started saying I could take the vehicle but I left it there and called our relative, Mrs Yosi Yaduma, to inform her about what happened.”
Yaduma said she reported the case at the Area C Command in Surulere, adding that the two officers were arrested and the case transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba.
Lamenting that the bereaved family had been clamouring for justice, Yaduma said Modibo, who was the breadwinner of his family, was survived by two wives and 11 children.
She said, “The incident happened on Friday. Alhaji Modibo was a Bureau De Change operator who was hypertensive. He told the officers that he was going to a hospital, even if he had broken the rule, in cases of emergency, rules can be broken.
“He even pleaded with them that he wanted to get the results of his daughter suffering from Down Syndrome, and from there, he would be going to the Living Heart Hospital in Lekki to see his doctor but the officers demanded a bribe of N50,000.