A police officer attached to Maroko Police Station on Saturday threw out the case of a young man brutalised in the Oniru area of Lagos out, on the grounds that rich people were involved.

Thirty-one-year-old Sanni Oluwajuwon was frying small chops for guests at a wedding at Five Palm Event Centre when two male guests approached and started shouting that he had refused to serve them.

Sanni, according to his sister, told them he would send their portions. The two, however, pounced on one of Sanni’s colleagues and beat him up.

Sanni made an attempt to rescue the colleague, but another guest picked up an iron chair from behind and hit his head.

“Then they started running away,” Sanni’s sister told FIJ. “My brother almost went flat on the floor, unknown to him that he was already bleeding.”

The incident was reported at the Maroko Police Station, and a police officer went to the scene. After a private conversation with the family of the culprit, the police officer told Sanni there was nothing he could do as the case had to do with the rich.

“When the police got to the scene, the family of the guy that brutalised my brother called the officer and spoke to him. Then he came to tell my brother that it was the case of the rich,” Sanni’s sister said.

“I shed tears when I saw my brother’s head and heard what the police said. It’s so terrible that even in our own country, the authority can’t protect us. Please, my family needs justice.”

The DPO of Maroko did not take his calls when reached. He has also not responded to an SMS sent to his phone number.