Eze Okoro, a 46-year-old man in Lagos was allegedly shot dead by drunk Nigerian
Police officers recently in front of his house at 1, Oguntolu Street, Ijaiye,
Ojokoro area, Lagos State, southwest Nigeria.
But the police have denied
taking part in his murder.
According to sources, the policemen had been
drinking for about six hours at a hotel nearby before they gunned down the man
while he was enjoying evening breeze in front of his house after work
.
After shattering his waist with bullets, the policemen who were said to
have come from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, Ikeja, forcefully took his
corpse away, perhaps to cover up their heinous act and dumped it in a mortuary
at Yaba.
The policemen took him to Yaba after the
Ikeja mortuary officials insisted that before his body could be deposited there,
they must fill certain forms, which they refused.
According to Okoro’s
wife, Mrs Ugo Okoro, her husband, who is a businessman, returned from work on
the fateful day, and because there was no electricity supply, they went and
relaxed in front of their house to enjoy some breeze before going to
sleep.
She said their family friend, Chinedu Nwanu and his wife, Nneka
Nwanu, who is heavily pregnant, also joined them outside.
Ugo said it was
not up to five minutes after she left them and went into their apartment that
she heard gun shots and the residents started running in all
directions.
She said while the commotion was going on, she heard her
husband, who was wearing a pair of shorts and simple shirt, shouting that he was
not a robber and was explaining to the policemen that he was just relaxing in
front of his house.
“Nneka also fell down and started shouting that she
was pregnant and showing the police her husband who was beside her. She was
allowed to leave with her husband and one of the policemen shot my husband in
the waist and he died on the spot,” Ugo narrated.
Sources told P.M.NEWS
that the team of policemen had arrived a popular hotel in the area beside
Okoro’s house in a Sienna bus with registration number KJA 280 BD and were
drinking heavily in the hotel from 4p.m. till 10 p.m. before the incident
happened.
Police sources claimed that the man was shot in error during a
gun batttle with armed robbers in the hotel, a claim disproved by Okoro’s wife
and relatives.
Even the hotel management told P.M.NEWS that there was no
shootout between the police and robbers as claimed by the police and that they
did not know their mission in the area that day.
The hotel sources, who
pleaded for anonymity, said they only noticed the unusual presence of policemen
which caused panic in their hotel.
One of the sources said that the
policemen did not disclose their mission. Rather they were there having their
drinks for several hours.
The source said it was later that they heard
gun shots outside and residents including workers of the hotel started running
for safety and that after some time, he got to know that they had shot and
killed Okoro.
He insisted that there was no robbery incident in the area
that day.
Okoro’s younger brother, Innocent, said he was informed about
what happened and he immediately contacted other members of the family and they
started searching from one police station to another for his corpse.
He
said they went to many police stations and commands and to their greatest
suprise, they all denied having anything to do with the
incident.
Innocent said the search lasted for three days and there was no
information whatsoever before they contacted a top police officer who made the
police to open up.
He said the police then asked him to go to Yaba
mortuary and search for Okoro’s corpse. And when he got there he discovered that
the corpse was dumped there as an unidentified corpse.
He said the corpse
was brought back to Ikeja General Hospital mortuary where he filled the
necessary documents.
Innocent expressed shock about what happened and the
way the police treated the whole matter by not even contacting the family
because they knew he was an innocent resident they killed for no
reason.
He also told P.M.NEWS that “the police admitted that Okoro was
killed in error and asked us to come forward with the elders of the
family.”
The late Okoro hailed from Imo State. He had a son called
Divine.
Meanwhile the Officer In Charge of the Special Anti-Robbery
Squad, Superintendent of Police, Abba Kyari, has claimed that it was armed
robbers that shot Okoro while they were trying to escape during an exchange of
gunfire with the police.
Kyari said: “ On 8 March, at about 1p.m., I
received an information that a gang of armed robbers who had planned to rob a
bank on Isolo road ,Ajao Estate were approaching Lagos from Ogun State through
Sango-Ota axis.
“Immediately I received this information, I alerted a
team of crack detectives. We quickly moved and laid ambush at Abule-Egba
Junction along Lagos /Abeokuta Expressway where the armed robbers were
intercepted. After a gun battle with the robbers, seven of them were injured
while two of them, identified as Olubode Mudashiru, 27, and Gbenga Joseph, 48,
were arrested with bullet wounds.”
He explained that after the arrest,
they received further information that one of the operational vehicles of the
robbers, a golden colour Toyota Camry carrying three AK-47 rifles and two rocket
launchers had driven through Abule-Egba junction towards Ajao Estate/Mushin area
of Lagos.
I quickly deployed my men to that area where we were informed
that the robbers had lodged at a popular hotel in Meiran area of Lagos, where
they normally smoke Indian hemp and drink before embarking on operation. I
quickly mobilised SARS operatives to the location.
“On sighting the
patrol team, the robbers opened fire at us and we responded. During the gun
battle, one of the robbers, Tunji Bamidele, 28, was arrested with one AK-47
rifle and a bag. Other gang members escaped along with two AK-47 rifles in their
possession.
“ But one man, identified as Okoro, was shot dead by the
robbers as they were trying to escape. We were on operation.We don’t know who is
who. It was one of the suspected robbers, Bamidele, who told us that the person
that was killed was not one of them.
“We quickly transferred the victim
to a morgue, where I took charge of the mortuary bill. We were not the one that
shot Okoro,” Kyari said.
According to him, during the operation, SARS
recovered two AK-47 rifles, eight AK-47 magazines fully loaded, three locally
made double barrel pistols, 65 live catridges along with two of their
operational vehicles Toyota Sienna with registration number AKD 54 AG and Nissan
Sunny with registration number BT 914 APP.
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