Former international weightlifter, Shola Oladunjoye, has explained how a member of the Nigeria Police Force ruined his career by stabbing him in the neck.
In an interview with The Punch, Oladunjoye alleged that he was stabbed by a police officer in Abeokuta, Ogun state on February 2, 2017, the same day he was to leave the country for a competition abroad.
He said the incident changed his life and career as he could barely manage to feed his family.
He said, “I am a Nigerian athlete. I went for the Commonwealth youth games in Pune, India in 2008 and I took the fourth position in the weightlifting category. After a while, I came back to Nigeria.
“I needed to sponsor myself for a game in Cuba on February 2, 2017, so I wanted to go and sort my family at a bank in Okelewo, Abeokuta at FCMB because that’s my bank. We got there on a bike, I had my passport and visa already because I was supposed to leave for Lagos that very day. When we got there, myself, my wife and my two-month-old daughter, there was a bike parked at the entrance of the bank, I had to jump over the bike.
“A policeman standing by called me, he asked me if I knew the meaning of what I had done, I asked him what have I done? He was advancing towards me with a gun in his hand. My wife didn’t notice this because she was far away from me. Another policeman was coming behind and I was not even aware, I didn’t notice he was coming because of the crowd, cars and everything. There was a lot of movement at the spot.
“The second policeman just slapped me at the back, so when he slapped me, I looked back and saw that he was a mobile policeman; he was holding a gun. He said what is going on? The next thing, he dipped his hand in his pocket, I thought he wanted to make a call, he brought out a knife from his pocket and stabbed me in the neck.
“I just saw that blood was coming out of my neck and the knife was in his hand and his left hand was carrying a gun. Then, people rushed towards us. He was trying to go away but I held onto him. I was taken to FMC (Federal Medical Centre) with the police patrol van, along with my wife and kid. The police dropped me at FMC but left and never returned.
“We’ve been on the case, me and my dad. We keep going to the police station, trying to pursue justice before I got pissed off and stopped going. Till date, no one called me, till the #EndSARS protest started.
“This cop, Olugbenga Olajide, has rendered me useless, weightlifting is what I love doing most. I can’t train now. I used to perform for my state and country but because I was stabbed in the jugular vein and the doctor said if I kept training and the muscle came up again, it might be fatal. I stopped training
“The competition I was supposed to go for, my ticket was N1.7 million and my visa was N1 million. The competition I was going for in Cuba, if I had won, the money from the award was about N6 to 7 million. This guy has ruined my life, I had to go on hire purchase (to get a motorcycle) so I can feed my family. I can’t perform as an athlete again.”
His wife, Abiodun, said the incident has rendered her husband useless such that it has become very hard for the family to feed.
According to her, the family was well-to-do before the incident.
“I saw my husband with two policemen, accusing him, insulting him, he was trying to avoid them. Immediately I saw that one of them stabbed my husband, I shouted for help but I couldn’t touch them because they were carrying guns and they were in uniforms. Other people surrounded us and a bank officer came downstairs. We asked him who the officers were, if they were personnel from the bank, he said no.
“As a result of the injury, he could not pay school fees, house rent; even feeding is hard. Before the incident, we were okay, we were doing well. I even had a car. As a result of the injury, my husband cannot do anything. The police officer, Olugbenga Olajide turned my husband to a bike man.”
