No fewer than four persons were gunned down instantly by stray bullets on Wednesday, November 19, 2014,at about 9.30pm during a shoot out by a gang of about 15 armed bandits led by one John Ibafo, alias small rainbow along the Railway Line in Oyingbo, Lagos.
It was learnt that they started shooting indiscriminately in order to scare shop owners and pedestrians.
The gang have reportedly invaded old Apapa Road before storming the area in the evening of the same day shooting sporadically into the air.
One of the deceased, Mr. Musa Garba, was a northerner who worked as a truck driver at the Kanuri Motor Park, Oyingbo.
According to some eyewitnesses, the shootings started when the hoodlums, on arrival, sighted two policemen in the area and engaged them in a hot chase.
A Punch report said that the witnesses added that one of the officers escaped, while the other fled into the park, removed his uniform, and covered his gun with it. The policeman was said to have hidden among pedestrians in the park while the shootings lasted.
Narrating the incident, one of those who were injured by the bullets, Mr. Yekini Babatunde, said, “We did not know that they were coming inside the park. They were in this area on Tuesday and wreak havoc. But yesterday night, it was the policeman, who ran into our park, that they came after when the bullet hit Garba in the neck.
“He bent down and was changing his truck’s deflated tyre. If I had been close to him, I would have been killed too. The bullets brushed my cheek bone and chest. I reported the matter at the Denton Police Division.”
Another driver in the park, simply identified as Alhaji Isa, said, “The cultists had shot two pedestrians dead by the rail line before pursuing one of the policemen into our park. It was while they wanted to get him that Garba was hit. We heard the policemen were from Denton and had been detained.
“The police know these hoodlums and their godfathers. Why has it become difficult for the hoodlums to be arrested? Innocent people are getting killed every time these boys go on rampage.”
Confirming the incident,the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Kenneth Nwosu said, “Two corpses were removed by our men, while three suspected cultists were also arrested. No policeman is being detained by Denton in connection with the case.”
