A policewoman attached to the Gowon Estate Police Division got more than she bargained for as she was beaten and had injuries inflicted on her by a trader Mrs. Clara Ossai who is facing two counts bordering on assault at a Lagos Magistrate’s Court sitting in Ijaye-Ojokoro
It was learnt that the incident happened inside the station around 11.30am on February 11.
The defendant was said to have attacked the 39-year-old woman, Sergeant Grace Agede, in an attempt to prevent the detention of her sister, Stella Amarikwa, who was arrested for stealing.
It was learnt that 28-year-old Ossai, a native of the Ikeduru Local Government Area, Imo State, attempted to free her sister, who Agede was taking to a cell.
She reportedly held the cop by the neck and punched her in the mouth, while blood gushed out from her lips.
Agede’s colleagues at the counter were said to have intervened, after which Ossai, who deals in clothes, was detained alongside her sister.
A police prosecutor, Inspector Benson Emuerhi, arraigned Ossai before a magistrate, Mrs. T. Akani, for causing a breach of peace at the station and harming the sergeant.
The charges read, “That you, Clara Ossai, 28, on February 11, 2015, at about 11.30am, at the Gowon Estate Police Station, in the Ikeja Magisterial District, did behave in a disorderly manner by shouting in the charge-room, creating unnecessary scene and disturbing the peace of the station and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 166 (B) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2011.
“That you, Clara Ossai, on the same date, time and place in the aforementioned magisterial district, did assault one Sergeant Grace Agede while in police uniform and performing her lawful duty by beating her up and inflicting injury on her lips and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 172 (B) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2011.”
The defence counsel, F.C. Nnaji, prayed the court to grant his client bail in the most liberal terms, adding, “she is a nursing mother.”
She was admitted to bail in the sum of N100,000 with a surety in like sum.
The case was adjourned till March 13, 2015.