…As deceased’s family cries for justice
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Police Watch, a non-governmental organisation serving as watchdog to the Nigeria Police, has filed a suits against the Osun State Police Command and a dismissed cop, Garba Adamu, in respect of the alleged killing of a motorcyclist, Saheed Olabomi.
Olabomi, 31, was said to have been shot by the sacked police Sergeant who was escorting an important personality in Osogbo, on July 27, around 4:30pm. The sacked cop, according to eyewitnesses, had wanted to shoot into the air to disperse people at a traffic scene around Islaudeen Grammar School, Oke-Onitea area, Osogbo, when he allegedly gunned down Olabomi who was on his motorcycle.
After two days in the Intensive Care Unit of the Osun State University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Olabomi gave up the ghost on Thursday, July 29.
The trigger-happy security personnel was said to have been committed to orderly room trial, leading to his dismissal on August 13.
The Police Public Relations Officer of the Command, Yemisi Opalola, said that the defaulting security personnel was dismissed from the force having been found guilty.
However, the victim’s family are currently calling for justice. According to the family of the deceased, Olabomi was the breadwinner of the family and the one taking care of his aged parents.
Narrating the circumstances that led to his killing, Olabomi’s sister, Folashade Adeyemi, said that the deceased had just returned from his farm on the fateful day. Around 2pm, she said that a friend asked late Olabomi to take him to Osogbo with his motorcycle.
According to her, tragedy struck at Oke-Onitea area of Osogbo, while the deceased was going to Iragbiji, shortly after his passenger alighted at his destination in Osogbo.
“I got a call around 4:30pm on that day that my brother had been shot by a police officer. I was confused. I stayed with him till his death on the third day at the hospital.
“My brother was not a thug, neither was he a violent person. He was going on his way when the police officer shot him. My brother’s killer should not go unpunished,” she said.
Also, a family member who spoke on behalf of the father of the deceased, Usamotu Olabomi, also called for justice.
In an exclusive interview with The Point, the spokesperson of Police Watch, Ayo Ologun, said that dismissing the officer did not amount to justice. He said that the group had served the police in the state and the dismissed police officer court summons.
“Dismissal of the Police officer isn’t justice in itself. It’s not just enough to dismiss the police officer. Being dismissed by the police, that’s just the process of the police, they call it orderly room trial.
We, in the Police Watch, have asked our lawyer to go ahead and take the matter up in court. As I speak to you, the Nigeria Police Force, Osun State Command, has been served court summons and also the culprit, the Police officer in question.
“We believe that we need to take him (Sergeant Garba) to court. He needs to be tried and, of course, if found guilty by a competent court, be sentenced accordingly. It is then that we believe justice is served. Dismissal is not justice in itself until the court pronounces him guilty and serves him punishment as enshrined in our law.
“We are saying that he (Garba) ought not to be tried in Abuja. If the orderly room trial was done at the Osun State Police Command, and the crime was committed in Osun, the court trial should be done here in Osun and not elsewhere.
“The Police should have received court summons; our lawyer should have served them. We are in touch with the family of the deceased and they are giving necessary support to ensure that we help them get justice,” Ologun said.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Olawale Olokode, has said that justice would be done on the matter, adding that “The orderly room procedure had been forwarded to the Police Force Headquarters, Abuja for necessary action.”
The Point gathered that the deceased, father of two (Yusuf, 3; and 10-month-old Ayomide), was a National Diploma holder from the Federal Polytechnic Offa, Kwara State.
Olabomi, born in 1990 and married in 2017, was a cousin to the Aragbiji of Iragbiji, Oba Abdulrasheed Olabomi.
It was learnt that in order to make ends meet, Olabomi engaged in commercial farming. He often went to Osogbo from Iragbiji in the evening to transport passengers in a bid to make ends meet.
