A team of officials attached to the Isheri Osun Police Division had on Wednesday, September 16, 2015 shot at a couple and killed the wife in the process.
The deceased, identified as Idongesit Ekpo, who was breastfeeding her baby at the time of the incident died on the spot while her husband Godwin survived but currently in a critical condition at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja,
The couple was returning from a church programme on the fateful day in their family’s private tricycle when some policemen flagged them down but he sped past which made one of the officers to shatter the windscreen with a baton.
A police corporal, identified as Aremu Musesiu, was said to have opened fire on the tricycle subsequently, which pierced through the tricycle back side and hit Idongesit, who was breastfeeding a three-month-old baby.
The bullet hit Godwin on the neck as he looked back when the shot was fired.
An eight-man police team who were reportedly extorting other tricycle drivers during the encounter hurriedly took money from the ones they had earlier detained and fled.
The development fueled a protest from tricycle drivers at the Ijegun Road in the Alimosho area of the state on Thursday, September 17, 2015.
The protesters held placards, some of which read, ‘Isheri Police, your generation will suffer,’ ‘Stop killing us,’ among others.
The Financial Secretary of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Lagos State branch, Chinanzor Ifechiga, was brutalised and her telephone seized by the Divisional Police Officer.
Ifechiga, who was accused of filming the protest and taking pictures, was manhandled by eight policemen, who struggled to take the phone from her on the order of the DPO, accordng to Punch.
A tricycle driver, Henry Chibuzor, who narrated the incident said: “I was going home around 10pm when I saw the eight-man team asking me to stop at a checkpoint. I was there with four other tricycle drivers.
“The man was coming from church with his family. As he got to the junction, he swerved and his tricycle mistakenly brushed their patrol van.
“A policeman hit the tricycle’s windscreen with a baton and damaged it. The second policeman fired a bullet which hit the woman in the neck, came out from the other side, and hit her husband too.”
He said the policemen collected N5,000 from him and also extorted money from other tricycle drivers.
It was learnt that the family tricycle had been taken to the Area M Police Command, while the children of the victims were with the police.
A member of the tricycle drivers association in the area, Bamidele Olorunshogo, said tricycle drivers in the community were being constantly harassed by the police in the Isheri Osun station.
Olorunshogo said, “Their mode of operation is that whenever the police arrest you, you will pay at least N3,000. If you don’t have the money on you, you will be allowed to go home and bring the money.”
A member of the CDHR, Ifechiga, who was allegedly brutalised said, “The DPO said I was one of them (the police) and I should not join the protesters. Because I refused, he said I should release my phone to him.
“He said he would disgrace me before everybody.
“He pointed a gun at me and the crowd dared him to shoot. He then ordered eight policemen to beat me up because I refused to give him my phone. He humiliated me before the protesters. But I am determined to get justice for the couple; and I want my phone back.”
The Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, who confirmed the incident, said Aremu had been arrested and detained.
He said, “The police are doing all in our capacity to ensure that the deceased’s children are taken care of. The police corporal involved has been taken into custody. When we complete all necessary disciplinary action, he will be charged to court for murder.
“The team leader and the DPO of Isheri Osun division have also been issued queries for disobeying the IG with regards to policemen performing duties out of uniform, and without a properly-labelled police van.”
