Less
than a week after a Mobile Police officer attached to Mountain Troop
Police, killed Beauty Nnenna Macleod at Emperor’s Place in Lagos,
another trigger-happy police officer has shot dead a commercial bus
driver in Lagos. A police officer attached to Area E Police Command,
Festac, yesterday, shot dead a yet-to-be-identified commercial bus
driver at Second Rainbow Bus Stop along Oshodi/Apapa Expressway, for
allegedly refusing to play ball.
According to reports, trouble started after some policemen stopped
the commercial bus driver for allegedly driving against traffic in a bid
to escape the traffic gridlock that has continually plagued the
expressway. It was learned that an argument ensued between the two after
the commercial bus driver refused to give in to his demand.
According to one of the passengers (name withheld) inside the
vehicle, “the police officer stopped the driver and ordered him to
reverse to the right lane or pay an undisclosed sum of money to avoid
arrest. It was during an argument that the aggressive policeman shot
him.”
Another eyewitness at the scene who simply identified herself as Aina
said: “I saw when the bus driver took ‘one way’ and was stopped by one
of the Amuwo-Odofin policemen on patrol who attempted to arrest the
driver. He told the driver to pay him some money as a condition for the
driver to proceed but the driver insisted that he was not paying since
other drivers were engaged in the same act and nobody was arresting
them.
The conductor, to support his oga, told the policeman that they had
passengers to drop off and they had not made any money for the day.
Angered by their resistance, the officer opened fire on the bus driver,
who died on the spot.” Saturday Vanguard gathered that the
conductor also got a fair dose of beating from the other policemen who
pounded on him for daring to challenge their colleague who shot the
driver.
Lamenting, Musa Yusuf, a motorcyclist, said “the bus driver was shot
because he committed an offence of plying ‘one way’. But it’s not his
fault in all truth because this road is always blocked. If he remains on
that road for two hours, do you know how much he would have lost for
the day? If I were in his shoes, I would have done same.
The state government should work on the road so that it can be free
again. No matter what he did, the driver did not deserve to die. Is the
police supposed to be asking for bribe?” It was alleged that the
policemen shot sporadically to scare off aggrieved “area boys” who
attempted to take laws into their hands, before the policemen carried
the corpse of the driver to an undisclosed location.
When contacted, the Lagos State Police Command Spokesperson, DSP Joe
Offor said he didn’t have enough facts and that he would get back to us
after he received situation report from Festac Area Command. But he was
yet to as at the time of filing this report.
It will be recalled that on May 10, 2015 a Superintendent of Police
simply identified as Mohammed attached to the Disaster Management Unit
of the Department of Operations, under the Lagos State Police Command
Headquarters, Ikeja shot dead one Akeem Aranse, a tricycle in Akowonjo
area of Lagos. On September 17, Mrs Udoh, a mother of four was also shot
dead by Police Corporal Musefiu Aremu at Ijegun area of Lagos.
Also on October 8, 2015 another police officer shot and wounded an
unarmed civilian, John Membu outside the gates of Chevy View Estate in
Lekki area of Lagos. And on Sunday, 24 October, Beauty Macleod was shot
dead by an officer attached to Mountain Troop Police.
No comments:
Post a Comment