Kunle ADELABU
The Divisional Police Officer(DPO) in-charge of Imota Police Division, has been alleged of wrongdoing by the mother of the girl killed by the stray bullet allegedly shot by a police officer, Sergeant Mudi Emmanuel, in Adamo, Ikorodu, on March 18,2019.
Mrs Janet Anifowoshe, the bereaved mother of late Adijat, while recounting the sad incident that led to the untimely death of her daughter, explained that the DPO and his men treated her and her sympathizers badly when they went to the station to protest the gruesome murder of her daughter.
In her words, she stated that :
“By the time we got to the station, we already met huge a crowd of people there who had come to sympathise with me and protest the unjust killing but the police officers refused to open the gate but by the time I got there, they opened the gate for me and those inside the vehicles that accompanied me.
“Suddenly, the police officers started beating those that followed me. While they were beaten the people, they dropped my daughter’s corpse at the entrance of the station”.
Mrs Anifowoshe alleged that the Imota DPO ordered his officers to open fire on the helpless residents who had accompanied her to the station.
“Most unfortunate was the action of the Imota DPO who ordered his men to release fire on those that came with me and the protesters and the police officers started shooting at them”.
She stated that she was detained despite that her daughter was killed by a police officer and that she was only released on the order of the Area N Commander who she said visited the station in the night of the day.
“I was equally detained at the station. I was only released around 11pm on the order of the Area N Commander on his arrival at the station.
“The police officers lied that they did not detain me when the Commander asked them why I was detained.
“They destroyed the two vehicles that accompanied me to the station with gunshots and that my neighbour that I called when they shot my daughter was also shot in his hand with severe damages. The man is still at Igbobi”, she stated.
Rear windshield of MAZDA car with number plate KRD 535 ET completely broken
A sister to the victim’s mother, Mrs Yemisi Balogun who is a civil servants, while also condemning the DPO’s action, said :
“There is also someone at the Orthopedic hospital in Igbobi who was shot on the order of the DPO”.
“It was also the DPO that shot the vehicles’ tyres”, she alleged.
She also deplored the action of the policemen when the family visited the station on Wednesday, March 20.
“In addition, when we went to Imota Police station on Wednesday, the way we were treated by the police officers is making me finding it difficult to believe that police officers are human beings and are friends of the public.
“Right inside the police station after the DPO had permitted us to see the vehicles, one officer was behaving abnormally towards us. Looking at his face, one would see that he was drunk right inside the station”, she stated.
Mr Heritage
Also, Mr Heritage, who claimed to have witnessed the incident, in an interview with our reporter, urged the Nigerian Police Force to subject their personnel to drug test, especially those that carry guns.
He also called for regular trainings for them.
“It was just a bad judgment on the part of the accused police officer. Our policemen are not well trained. The Police authority needs to start doing drug and alcoholic tests for every police officer that they give gun to.
“It was the tax payers’ money that was used in procuring the police uniform and xguns. If the police are doing thorough training for their officers, incessant killings like this will not be happening.
“How many times are we going to be lamenting over avoidable deaths in Nigerian? This is something that doesn’t have to happen. I tried so much to dissuade that guy (police officer responsible for Adijat’s death) from firing another shot on that day”.
A member of the family also told THE IMPACT that doctors at the Orthopedic hospital, Igbobi, said that the hand of the alleged victim of the DPO’s shooting would be amputated.
When our reporter visited the Imota Police station in the company of the Deputy Commissioner of Police on Friday, March 22, seven bullet holes were seen on the windscreen of one of the two vehicles (MAZDA car with number plate KRD 535 ET) while one of its tyres was deflated and the rear windshield completely broken.
The four tyres of the second vehicle (MPV MAZDA with number plate APP 998 FP) were also deflated.
