When violence broke out between some residents of Odukaiye Street in Amukoko and their neighbours from Ugbenwankwo Street in the Ajegunle area of Lagos, little did anyone know that the end results would be death of innocent persons from stray bullets fired from the guns of some policemen.
By the time the heat from the intercommunal violence cooled, no fewer than two persons had lost their lives. The Police allegedly gunned down two persons, while the third, an unidentified resident, was allegedly killed in the course of the fighting.
As the fighting between the people of the two communities raged, a 55-year-old woman standing in the balcony of the first floor of a two-storey building on Ugbenwankwo Lane, Ajegunle, frantically called on her children to leave the street and take refuge inside the house to avoid being caught in the middle of the violence. But shortly after, she herself was hit on her lap and stomach by stray bullets allegedly fired by unidentified police operatives.
They shot Hakeem in the neck. We carried him to St. Mila’s Hospital. We were trying to save his life; unknown to me, my own mother had also been shot and waiting for people to rush her to the hospital. I was at the hospital when some people came to call me that the police had also shot my mother. I didn’t know what to do or say
The woman, identified as Alhaja Oluwakemi Yusuf, was rushed to a hospital in the area, but the doctors on duty referred her to another hospital, from where she was again referred to the General Hospital, Lagos.
Her first son, Kazeem Yusuf, said before she was rushed to the General Hospital, a traditional healer was called in and he was able to extract bullets from her lap, while the two other bullets lodged in her stomach were successfully removed the next day at the General Hospital.
Kazeem said while the family was happy and thinking that the worst was over, they never envisaged that death was about to snatch his mother until his younger sister called to give him the sad news that the matriarch of the family had succumbed to the injuries inflicted on her by the stray bullets, allegedly fired from the unidentified policemen’s guns.
Kazeem, a carpenter, said he was confused and did not know what to do because he was running around, looking for money to buy drugs and pay other hospital bills, when the unexpected happened.
He recalled that on that fateful day, he earlier got a call that the police had shot his friend, Hakeem Saliu, and along with other friends, they had rushed the victim to the hospital.
While at the hospital, Kazeem was busy praying for the survival of his friend, not knowing that his mother had also been shot by the unidentified policemen, writhing in excruciating pains and oscillating between life and death in a pool of blood.
He said, “On that fateful day, I was in my friend’s apartment, close to my residence. People came to call us that the police had shot Hakeem. They even said the policeman who shot him was also named Hakeem. But I don’t know his rank. We all rushed out from the house. They shot Hakeem in the neck. We carried him to St. Mila’s Hospital.
“We were trying to save his life; unknown to me, my own mother had also been shot and waiting for people to rush her to the hospital. I was at the hospital when some people came to call me that the police had also shot my mother. I didn’t know what to do or say. I had to run as fast as I could. We carried my mother to the same hospital, only to be told by the doctor that since the bullet was inside her stomach, we should rush her to another hospital. Somebody called the native doctor, who extracted the bullet from her lap, while bullets were also extracted from her stomach at the General Hospital the next day. The operation was successful.
“I thought the worst was over, but the devil refused to back off. The third day, my younger sister called that mama had died. We have buried her. The policemen from Amukoko Police Station did not even show concern that they killed my mother. They did not show concern that they killed Hakeem. Up till now, they have not come to say sorry. We had to report the matter at Ajeromi Police Station. My mother was not the only one shot by the policemen. They also killed Hakeem and one other man.”
Kazeem’s younger brother, Taofeek, who is a mobile phone repairer and a former student of Kwara State Polytechnic, said their father died last year and now the police had killed the only parent left to cater for their needs.
“After my father died last year, I couldn’t continue my education. I have already finished my ND1 and I want to go for my HND. I just discussed that with my mother, who was also a nurse. She had promised to assist me, but now the police have killed her for me. As a student of marketing, I also have interest in repairing phones. I had to learn from a man after I explained that I didn’t want to be roaming the streets during my holidays. The man agreed and I watched him repair handsets in Kwara State. So, that was how I learnt how to repair handsets and computers.
“The policemen from Amukoko police station were shooting directly from the Amukoko side while policemen from Ajegunle Police Station did not open fire. A canal separates Amukoko and Ajegunle. That fateful day, I was not in the house, but it was when I returned that they told me that police stray bullets killed my mother. I wept. They said it was one policeman called Hakeem that was shooting sporadically that shot my mother, who was on the balcony of the first floor of the two storey – building where we live. They also killed Hakeem and one other man. Why should police shoot directly at people? Is that how to settle a problem? My mother was not even living with us. She lived at Okokomaiko. But once in a while, she would come and visit us. My mother was so caring and friendly. She never wanted anything bad to happen to any of her children.”
Taofeek called on the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to ensure justice and compensation for his family, because, according to him, the police killed his mother in cold blood.
At the Young Lane residence of Kuburat Saliu, the mother of 24-year-old Hakeem, allegedly killed by a policeman attached to Amukoko Police Station, sympathisers surrounded the distraught woman.
The old woman, who refused to be consoled, cried sorrowfully, saying, “They killed my gentle son for nothing. One policeman at Amukoko called Hakeem shot my son dead. He also killed two other people. I heard that that was how the same policeman was killing people until they removed him from Amukoko Police Station. What did he come to Amukoko to do, again? My son was into furniture making. Very hardworking. He took very good care of me. I have three children. His friends called him on phone and as he was coming back, the policeman called Hakeem shot him.”
Late Hakeem’s uncle, Rafiu Dash said, “His father is my elder brother. His name is Saliu Alabi. He went to work now. He’s a dockworker. Let me tell you what I know. At about 1pm, some men rushed to call me that Hakeem had been shot. I followed them to St Milla’s Hospital, where I saw him in a pool of blood. I touched his stomach, it was very cold and stiff and that was how I knew that Hakeem was dead. I told people around that he was dead. As Muslims, we had to arrange for his burial. Police carried his corpse to Ajeromi Police Station. They later released the corpse to us for burial.”
Residents of the two communities are still living in fear as the “combatants” are said to continue to spoil for a continuation of the violence, which had resulted in the death of the three victims.
A popular local vigilance group in Ajegunle was alleged to have set the wooden bridge linking the two streets ablaze.
They said they had to destroy the bridge to stop the inter-communal fighting because the “combatants” had easy access to one another through the bridge. The operators of the bridge usually charge residents N20 toll.
