The Lagos State Judicial Panel on Restitution for Victims of SARS-related Abuses continued its inquiry on Friday into the alleged police killing of one Bukola Adeogun in 2018.
The parents of the deceased, Julius and Adewunmi Adeogun instituted the petition through their lawyer, Ademola Adebayo, who presented a witness to give his account of the incident.
Murtala Safar, testifying in Yoruba language and recorded with the aid of an interpreter, affirmed knowing the late Bukola Adeogun. He told the panel that on the night of the shooting, upon his return from work, he went out within the Okokomaiko area, to give his clothes to his tailor to sew for him.
The witness said it was while on the way at about 9pm that he saw about three buses conveying policemen on a raid, and that one of them alighted and forced him to enter one of the buses, despite explaining his movements.
He said other persons were arrested that night, including the deceased who queried the officers on why they arrested him in front of his house.
According to the witness, they were all taken to the Okokomaiko Police Station and ordered to alight and sit on the floor.
He added that one of the detainees wanted to make a call, but was prevented from doing so, and after a while, the police officers collected everyone’s phones, including the cloth material the witness held.
The deceased then allegedly went to policeman carrying a gun and spoke with him, the line of discussion is unknown.
“But the police man told him to sit down but he didn’t comply, then the officer hit him with the butt of the gun on the neck, he sat down and started shivering after a minute or two, but the policemen said they should leave him alone, that he is pretending. Then he later fell to the side and kept on shivering.”
Then, he said the wife of the deceased came into the station carrying a child and saw her husband lying on the floor shivering. The witness said She wanted to touch her husband but one of the policemen pushed her hands away, and that she started crying, prompting the policemen to tell her to take him away, but she couldn’t carry him.
He said he assisted in taking Mr Adeogun home on a bike he boarded at around midnight, after retrieving his own phone from the police, while the wife followed them on foot.
By that time, he said the deceased was just staring and not speaking. The following day, he heard he died.
He added that upon a plea by the father and brothers of the late lotto operator, to help them report the case, he followed them to the police station and wrote a statement. He also went with the family to the Lagos Police Command, Ikeja to write a statement but says nothing more has been done since then.
Before adjourning the matter to 25th May, 2021 for further hearing, the Panel also dismissed an Objection by the Police Counsel, Cyril Ejiofor against the hearing of the petition on grounds that an advice by the Directorate of Public Prosecution in the State had absolved the Police of any involvement in the death. But, the Chairperson, Retired Justice Doris Okuwobi ruled that the Objection was belated.
