Protesting youths. Inset: Fasere.
Youths
in Ilupeju Ekiti, Ekiti State, on Tuesday staged a protest in the town
over the “shoddy manner” the police carried out autopsy on the corpse of
Seyi Fasere.
Fasere, a 400-level student of Ekiti
State University, Ado Ekiti, was allegedly killed by a policeman in Oye
Ekiti on February 28, 2013.
The protesters barricaded the highway which links Ekiti with Kogi State, preventing motorists from travelling through the town.
Shops and other business activities in the town were paralysed as the protest was supported by the residents.
The youths later marched to the police
station in Oye Ekiti where Seyi was allegedly killed. The protesters
clashed with policemen at the station which led to an injury of one Deji
Omoniyi.
The youth, who were chanting anti-police
songs, said the way the police carried out the autopsy without the
presence of representatives of Fasere family meant that the report could
not be trusted.
The protesters blamed a government
official, who is an indigene of the town, for allegedly supporting the
police to deny the deceased family justice.
The President of Ilupeju Youths
Association, Mr. Idowu Ajayi, and the Students’ Union President of
Ilupeju, Mr. Temitayo Fatile, who addressed the protesters, said that
the protest would continue until the police authorities “do the right
thing”.
They also demanded N150m as compensation to the family of the deceased.
Ajayi said, “The autopsy was not
properly done. If it was a son of a commissioner or son of the SSG that
was killed, the police would not have done the autopsy in that
questionable way.
“We went to the palace yesterday and
Kabiyesi asked us to collect the corpse and bury it. We went to the
station and they fired bullets at us. The police must bury the boy. They
must bury him in their station and name the station after him. They
must compensate the family. He must not die in vain.”
The youths said Fasere was not an armed robber because they would have known if he had any dubious character.
Fatile said, “Up till now, the report of
the autopsy has not been made known to the family. It was wrong for the
police to tell the parents to pick Seyi’s (Fasere) corpse for burial,
when all the matter have not been settled.
“The police should clear the name of the boy. If he was a robber why are they releasing the corpse to the family for burial?
“We want scholarship for one of the
sibling of the deceased. We want the police to make a public
pronouncement that Seyi Fasere is not a robber but was shot in error.”
Fasere had gone to Ilupeju, his
hometown, to collect his tuition. On his way to school, the commercial
bus he boarded ran into the robbery scene at a branch of United Bank for
Africa in Oye Ekiti.
The driver made a detour to a saw mill along the road, while the occupants of the bus ran inside the bush to save their lives.
Fasere was later arrested by policemen
who combed the bush after the robbery. They took him to the station,
where the N100,000 tuition was found on him.
A policeman at the station, known as “Akobi Esu” (Devil’s firstborn) pulled the trigger which terminated Fasere’s life.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Victor Babayemi, when contacted, said he had yet to be briefed on the protest.
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