Lagos: Falana vows to ensure soldier arrested for violating traffic is prosecuted

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has vowed to ensure that the soldier who was arrested by the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu over road traffic offence is prosecuted.

Sanwo-Olu arrested some men on motorbikes plying one-way along Lagos-Badagry Expressway.

The governor was on his way to the inauguration of the Femi Gbajabiamila Conference Centre at Ojo campus of the Lagos State University, LASU, when the incident occurred on Tuesday.

One of the offenders might have thought he would be freed when he identified himself as a soldier, but the governor ordered the security men to lock him up for that reason.

While being taken away by security operatives, Sanwo-Olu said; “Put him there, let your father come and rescue you.”

And Falana, who appeared on Channels Television on Wednesday, noted that men of the armed forces in the country often see themselves as above the law.

“In our country, men of the armed forces believe, as if we’re still under the military dictatorship, that they’re above the law,” he said.

“We’re even lucky there was no unfortunate incident. Last year August, some policemen were controlling the traffic around Ojo and because vehicles were stopped, soldiers came from one of the vehicles and pounced on one of the police officers and an inspector was killed in the process.

“Others were injured and detained in the barrack. Even to release the soldiers for investigation was problematic.

“It was the same thing in the case of Wadume, where a captain led soldiers to attack three policemen and killed them who had come to arrest a very dangerous criminal and what happened?

“Soldiers were even charged but a former Attorney-General Malami withdrew the case from the court that the soldiers will try them. These guys have been promoted.

“So, we must run a country where there is rule of law and there must be equality before the law and I’m going to ensure that we get the human rights community to pressurise the Lagos State Government to have that soldier tried.”