Monday, June 17, 2013

Killing of nine year old Timilehin: Sergeant, six other policemen held


One Sergeant Alowonle Rasak and six others have been arrested by detectives attached to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, for the killing of nine year old Timilehin.
Timilehin was shot dead on Thursday at the Mile 12 area of Lagos, by some policemen who were trying to apprehend a commercial bus driver.
The driver, whose bus is marked Ikeja JKA 65 SE, incurred the wrath of the policemen when he started picking and dropping passengers on the express way around 8.30pm.
The bus driver, Babatunde Omoniyi, explained that he carried a full load of passengers from Ojota, heading to Mile 12 and his conductor had called the bus stop to know if anybody would be stopping at Kosofe but nobody answered.
Believing nobody would alight, he maneuvered to the service lane, only for the conductor to start shouting at him to stop that somebody was about to alight.
Omoniyi recalled: "I almost ran into another commercial bus that looked like it was faulty and was parked on the expressway because it had no light. I was even complaining about the driver who parked the faulty bus. He should have put a caution sign to notify other road users. After I had successfully maneuvered, the passenger alighted and I moved on.
"On getting to Mile 12 market to drop another passenger, an officer just appeared from nowhere and asked me to drive straight to the police station that I was under arrest for dropping a passenger on the expressway. The passengers and I started begging him and the other officers who had arrived at the scene.”
After begging and the policemen adamantly refused, the passengers started finding their way, leaving the driver with his conductor. A few minutes later, the conductor also disappeared.
“I ran down from the bus and took to my heels too. But as I ran across the road to the other side, I heard two gun shots and this made me increased my speed.
"It was later that I heard that a nine year old child was hit by the bullet that was shot by one of the officers," said Omoniyi.

No comments: