When Luke Gum, a Lagos-based Uber driver, left for work on the morning of November 20, nothing prepared him for the harassment and intimidation that awaited him.

The Uber driver told FIJ that he had just left his house in Ikoyi around 6:00 am when the driver of a female Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) officer slightly bashed his car on Awolowo Road.

FIJ gathered that several other EFCC officials stormed the scene, rough-handled Gum and harassed him as they dragged him to their office in Ikoyi.

“I was about to enter the main road from my house when I noticed this vehicle, an SUV, coming towards me. I signalled to him because I was about entering the road. He stopped for me initially, but while I was entering the road, he tried to move behind me so he could pass,” Gum said.

“All of a sudden, I heard a noise, a bang, from the back of my car. I came down to know what was happening and discovered there was no serious damage to my car and that of the person driving behind me. I would later find that the owner of the car that was being driven that day is an EFCC official.”

After both drivers emerged from their vehicles, Gum suggested they go their separate ways since there was no apparent damage to either car. However, the other driver refused, as he insisted that Gum would not go without paying for the damages.

“The driver said I had spoilt their car. I looked at it and saw that nothing was wrong with the car. My own car was bashed and I was supposed to complain, but I did not do so.

“I gently told the driver that if he refused to accept that there were no damages, we should call traffic officers. But I told him that if we called them, they would blame him because he hit my car.

“At that point, he got angry. He said I was trying to be smart. Then the woman in the car, who happened to be an EFCC officer and the driver’s boss, came down and started saying ‘What is the idiot saying? Is he claiming right or what?

“And I said, ‘Madam, if any traffic official comes to this place, they will blame him because he hit my car at the back. I was already on the road. He tried to manoeuvre and pass behind me, and then he hit my car.’

“An argument ensued. She said she would impound my car and she would lock me up. I told her that she could go ahead and do whatever she wanted because her car was not damaged. It was his driver who hit my car, and not the other way round. She said I was stubborn, that I didn’t know who she was.

“I kept insisting that our cars were not damaged and it was her driver who was at fault. I said I was going to Onikan to call the traffic police to come and check the scene. Then she blocked me. She said I was trying to run away, but I said no, since my car was still there. She refused.”

Gum said the woman, whom he would later learn was Madam Amarachi, was calling her office amid the scuffle that had ensued.

“She was saying very terrible things, saying I was trying to beat her up. I sensed that she was up to something. I was calling my neighbour too to rush and go to the police station. In less than like 10 minutes, some officials of the EFCC arrived. They were like up to four.”

Before the EFCC officials arrived, the woman’s driver had shoved Gum into a dirty, water-filled gutter, an action that left him with bruises on his elbow.

When the EFCC officials instructed Gum to enter their car and accompany them to their office, he countered that the incident was a traffic matter and that they should not be involved.

He informed them that he had already contacted someone to call for the police, as he stressed that the EFCC officials were not traffic authorities and should wait for the police to arrive.

“They tried to force me, but I stood my ground. I said I was going to wait for the police. I did not want to follow them. The woman now called for reinforcement. Another bus, Toyota Hiace Hummer, came with more EFCC officials. They were about five to six. Immediately those ones came, they started pushing me to enter the bus. They said I was an idiot,” Gum said.

“I said how could they tell me to enter the bus? I said the police were coming. They lifted me up to force me into the bus. I was just wondering why they wanted to take me to their office. In an accident case, they should not be taking me to their office; they should wait for the police to come and resolve it. I was ready to wait for the police, and if their verdict stated that I was at fault, I was ready to pay.

“They beat me and forcefully pushed me into their vehicle. About five people held me. Some held my legs, some my hands. At that point, I hit my waist on the edge of the bus. I hit it so hard that they finally succeeded in dropping me on the floor of the bus. I was screaming.

“Immediately they closed the bus and left the scene of the accident, they started hitting me. Some punched me. Some kicked me. They beat me silly inside their bus. I believe they were being careful before they dumped me inside the bus because people were around, but immediately I was inside the bus and they left the scene, they pounced on me.

“At the EFCC office, I was bare-chested and barefooted. I had no shirt or shoes on me. In the process of dragging me, they tore the shorts I was wearing and even my inner wear too.

“We got to their office, and they were taking me to the back of the building. The guy following me said I was trying to prove stubborn, that they would show me. I said they couldn’t do more than killing me, and if they did, justice would come for me. He asked me to sit on the floor, when I tried to resist, he used his leg to back my legs, and I fell to the ground. I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t because something was wrong with my waist.

“They later took me to one office, where I was made to sit on the floor. They were laughing at me. The woman now came and was saying ‘Show your power and let me see’. I told her I was not afraid of her despite that I was in her office. What she was doing to me, she thought it was the end of the world, but justice will definitely come for me.

“Many officers kept coming into that place. When they saw me in that state, many of them were shocked. One of them asked another person what I was doing there. It was at that point that someone mentioned it was Madam Amarachi [who brought me there]. That was how I knew the woman’s name.”

He further noted that when one of the EFCC officers said Gum should be allowed to go, another one said they were going to take him to the police station.

About three hours after that, the Uber driver said, he was taken to Onikan Police Station, where the officers further degraded him by treating him like a criminal.

“At the police station, I was asked to sit on the floor. I was treated like a common thief. The woman went to talk to the divisional crime officer (DCO). She was there for some time.

“I had been in the police station for about an hour when I saw a young lady. I tried to send her to call one of my people on Awolowo road around the area. I gave her the address. She asked me to record it so that she would not forget. As I was doing the recording, one of them saw two of us.

“The EFCC official confronted the lady. They collected the phone and asked her to delete whatever message I had recorded on it. Then the EFCC madam came out with the DCO and they were challenging her. They said she should delete the message. I don’t know whether they deleted the message, but the message was just simple. I called the name of my brother, and said please come to Onikan police station. They stopped the lady from helping me get across to any of my people.

“After some time, they said the DCO was calling me. In his office, he asked me and the woman to explain what happened. After that, he said I would pay the woman for damages, that I would pay the driver for his shirt.

“I was pained that we could live in a country where a man is treated like a criminal just because you have an issue with someone who is deemed to be a powerful person in society.

“They gave me a paper to write a statement. The DCO was shouting at me that if I messed up, they would bring a detainment form for me to fill. As I was writing the statement, Madam Amarachi called him to one corner.

“I don’t know the discussion that they had, but he now came back to collect the statement form from me. At that time, I had only written the introduction about myself. He collected it from me and tore it. I was asked to come outside and was told to go after some time.”

Gum said he looked like a mentally deranged individual as he was covered in blood and dirt, with no shirt on. He had no means of returning home and no passing vehicle stopped for him despite his attempts to flag some down.

He said he had to visit the nearby fire station, where he approached an officer who offered to take him to his house after explaining his predicament.

“The fire serive officer gave me a shirt and drove me home,” said Gumi.

He said he had to undergo medical treatment at the military hospital in Ikoyi as a result of the bruises and affected waist.

“That day, I spent around N52,000 at the hospital. I was scheduled for lab tests, some of which I have completed, while others are still pending. I will still need to have an X-ray scan because I am currently unable to walk or drive properly. My livelihood depends on the Uber business. And now, I am unable to drive as a result of Madam Amarachi’s actions. She has crippled my ability to perform my job. I am unable to enjoy my life again,” Gum said.

EFCC’S RESPONSE

When FIJ contacted Dele Oyewale, the spokesperson of the EFCC, on Monday, he said the Uber driver had violated traffic rules when he bashed Madam Amarachi’s vehicle.

“I am disappointed because the so-called Uber driver was driving against the traffic, what is called one-way,” he said. “While following that one-way, the people who rightly had the road were coming, and he brushed the official vehicle of one of our officers that was coming to work.”

“He came down of the car and engaged the driver of our officer in a fight. He’s a temperamental person. In the course of the fight, he fell into the gutter. Then he picked a stone and said he would hit the stone on our driver. That was what made our officer to call for help from the office.

“And when they came, they saw him in the state that he was. They said they disarmed him, and our officer told her driver to drop her at the office so she would go to the police station.

“Nobody tried him at the EFCC. Nobody entertained his matter. Nobody brutalised him. When he heard that we had a CCTV coverage, he even apologised.”

In response to the EFCC spokesperson’s claims, the Uber driver said he was just coming out of his house to connect the main road and had already entered the road when the other driver hit his car.

Although he said that he indeed picked up a stone, he said it was when he came out of the gutter covered with “everything inside that dirty stinking gutter”.

“I was overwhelmed with anger and carried the stone, but I didn’t use it after I got myself back in control, knowing the gravity of hitting him with a stone,” he said.

“Don’t let those people confuse you with their sweet denials. They were looking for something to tell the police to make it look like I was at fault,” he said.

Meanwhile, the DCO identified as Adebayo said he was not at liberty to speak with a journalist about the matter. He, however, asked our reporter to visit the police station where he would direct our reporter to the appropriate authority..