15th December, 2010
Four policemen attached to Isashi Police Station in Iba Local Council Development Area of Lagos State, South-West Nigeria, were last night drugged in a hotel and their rifles and ammunition carted away.
The incident took place around midnight at Regional Hotel, located by El-Shadai Bus Stop, along Iyana Isashi Road, police sources told P.M.NEWS this morning.
Hotel sources told P.M.NEWS that the four policemen; a sergeant, a corporal and two constables, arrived Regional Hotel with one of their male friends and told the supervisor to serve them drinks.
Sources said that the policemen brought along with them a bottle of wine and ate chicken brought to them by their unknown friend.
After eating and drinking, the four policemen went to their patrol van and fell asleep, it was learnt. They were rescued by other policemen who were alerted by the manager of the hotel. The four policemen were later taken to the police station and detained in a cell.
They slept in the cell and only woke up this morning, sources said.
“When the patrol team arrived the hotel around midnight, they went to the reception and met with the supervisor. They told him that they came to have a drink with their friend. They sat outside and drank red wine. They also ate chicken.
“As you can see, we don’t sell red wine or chicken here, we only sell beer in this place,†the source said.
Another source at the hotel told our correspondents that the man who came to the hotel with the policemen was arrested by them. He was reportedly beaten and released later. He was then forced to buy beer for the policemen.
A police source told our correspondents that while three of the policemen were on duty, one of them only joined them to share the beer. The source said that their three rifles and all the ammunition were then taken from them while they were asleep.
The source said that the four policemen may be dismissed from the police.
When P.M.NEWS visited the police station this morning, some policemen were discussing the issue.
A police officer at the station who did not want to be quoted because he is not allowed to talk to journalists told our correspondents that there had been many reported cases of people being drugged in the area. “To us at the police station, it is not a new thing. We received many complaints from people. That is why we advise people to be security conscious. The problem we have in Nigeria is that we are not vigilant, we are not security conscious. We must begin to suspect everything around us because even your friend can be used to do evil,†he said.
Hotel sources told P.M.NEWS that the policemen are not new in the hotel, they come almost every night to patrol.
Regional Hotel was built almost 15 years ago. It has 68 rooms and has many prostitutes. One of the coordinators in the hotel told our correspondents that it costs N500 for ‘short-time’ and N3,000 for lodging.
He said all kinds of people come around, especially in the night, to either have drinks, get a prostitute or lodge.
—Simon Ateba & Tunmise Ige
