Lewis Onipele, a Lagos resident, has recounted how personnel of the Nigerian Air Force at 041 Communications Depot, Shasha, Lagos, commonly known as “Shasha Air Force Base”, brutalised and detained Afeez Onipele, his brother, on June 28.

Speaking to EQ on Monday, Onipele said that nine Air Force personnel, led by Flight Sergeant Amosun and acting on the instructions of Patrick Monyei, the Officer Commanding Provost, beat his brother with a machete before unjustly detaining him for three days.

Narrating how the incident began, Onipele explained that his brother, a community leader in Shasha Oguntade, was asked to mediate a dispute between a group of boys whose football had hit a woman’s shop and the shop owner’s children.

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As a youth leader, Afeez instructed the boys, who were still arguing with the woman, to go home, which they did. But once the boys left, his problem started.

Onipele said one of the shop owner’s daughters, who was in a romantic relationship with the OC Provost, reported the matter to Monyei. Afterwards, a team of Air Force officers went to where Afeez and his friends were to assault them.

“My brother was celebrating with a friend at a bar when the nine-man, all-masked team arrived. They beat him and two of his friends with a cutlass and took them to their barracks, where they were detained for three days,” Onipele told EQ.

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“It was only through the intervention of a colonel at Computer Village that my brother was released. After his release, we went to the police, who gave us a referral for treatment. We took him to a general hospital in Ikeja, where we discovered the machete used to flog him was infected. We spent over N130,000 on his treatment.”

Onipele added that the Shasha Police arrested the woman and her daughter, who had called in the Air Force personnel, but granted them bail and instructed them to report to the station in a week. However, they did not turn up.

When the police went to the shop owner’s house to follow up, Onipele told EQ, they couldn’t find her or her daughter. According to Onipele, the pair told the police over the phone that they had travelled.

The next day, the same nine-man Air Force team abducted Afeez from his home.

“They took him back to the barracks, claiming he had a land-related case with them. The following day, they said they would release him on the condition that he withdrew the charges against the woman and her daughter,” Onipele told EQ.

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“We played along and they released him. But when we returned to the station, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) was unhappy. The DPO said the Air Force personnel prevent them from doing their work by meddling in their affairs. He even advised us to go to the press.”

EQ called Patrick Monyei, the OC Provost, for comments on the matter on Monday. His number did not connect. He had not responded to an SMS text sent to him at press time.

When EQ called the DPO of Shasha Police Station for comments via the number Benjamin Hundeyin, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), posted on X, a respondent asked this reporter to show up at the police station, stating that the phone number was for the charge room.
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