Oyo Community Petitions CP over Killing of Man

Oyo Community Petitions CP over Killing of Man

Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

The people of Sepeteri community in Saki East Local Government Area of Oyo State have petitioned the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Shina Olukolu, to investigate what they described as the extra-judicial killing of an indigene of the community, Mr. Jimoh Abdul Lateef of Agoro compound on October 16.

The incident threw the entire Sepeteri community into mourning mood as youths of the community were prevailed upon by the elders not to take laws into their hands in their bid to protest the killing.

The community in a letter written by their counsel, A.Y. Aderogba and Co, dated October 17 and titled: “A call for investigation of extra judicial killing of Mr. Jimoh Abdul Lateef of Agoro compound, Sepeteri,” called on the state police command to identify officers responsible for the dastardly act and prosecute them for murder.

The counsel, while giving the details of the incident that led to the death of Lateef, said the 32-year old was killed on his way to his place of work at Gabri Processing Factory at Obatule Akoto area of Sepeteri.

According to the letter, “Lateef who was riding on his motorcycle was allegedly shot and taken away by members of Nigeria Police Force,” with his father, Mr. Jimoh Adio, who rushed to the scene and found his son in a pool of blood wriggling in pain on the ground.

“The Divisional Police Officer in Ago-Amodu was immediately contacted who denied that the officers were not from his division. The matter was also reported to the leadership of Sepeteri community.

“The search party eventually got wind that the police that allegedly shot Lateef are from Igbeti.”

The counsel added that the leaders of the community in their quest to get to the root of the matter discovered that the victim was taken to a local herbalist to extract bullet from him, but died in the process while his remains “were deposited at the General Hospital in Igbeti, but were not allowed to see the corpse.”

The lawyer described Lateef “as a responsible, law abiding and gainfully employed person with no criminal record whose life was cut short by trigger happy policemen has left his family in great pain, his wife widowed and his children orphaned.”

The elders through the letter called on the Commissioner of Police, “as a matter of urgency direct thorough investigations of this case with a view to identify the policemen responsible for the extra-judicial killing and prosecute them for murder.”

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