By Dare AKOGUN
Residents of Lajolo community in Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara State have accused the Police of extrajudicial killing of two teenagers while carrying out an operation in the community on Saturday, January 29, 2022.
The victims, Jamiu Fatai and Shaobana Abdulrasheed, both 18 year old, were natives of Lajolo community, a student-populated area, which is close to Kwara State Polytechnic.
The Mogaji ( community head) Isa Alao, while speaking to our reporter, said the activities of security operatives were becoming worrisome, saying that different security outfits in the guise of fighting crimes and criminalities often visited the community at intervals to make arrests.
They would release the suspects mostly students, after allegedly collecting money.
According to him, “The activities of the security agencies in this area have become worrisome in recent times. They have turned crime fighting into a weekly business venture, where people are arrested at random and released after collecting huge sums as bail,” he said.
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Talking about Saturday incidents, the Mogaji said the community started hearing sporadic gunshots at about 6:00am, causing pandemonium.
He said he was later informed that it was the men of the Nigeria Police that stormed the community in an 18-seater Hummer bus gestapo style, breaking down doors of students and arresting seven of them.
He said Jamiu was recording the melee with his mobile phone in front of his house before he was shot in the shoulder and as he turned to run for his life, he was shot at the back.
Jamiu, a J SS 3 student who is also a carpenter apprentice, later died at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital where he was rushed to, but another person Shaobana Abdulrasheed was taken away after being shot by the operatives.
The Mogaji wondered why the security agencies found it difficult to inform the community head when such operations would be carried out, knowing full well that traditional and community heads knew the details of virtually every residents of their various communities.
“If any kind of operations is to be carried out, we believe the Police should inform the community heads, who actually know the area and can be of immense help to security agencies in fighting crime,”.
“The only reason I can say that made them not inform the community of the operation is because it is illegal job,” he concluded.
In his own account, a distraught family member of the victim Rasheed Imam, who claimed to be the elder brother of Jamiu, told our reporter that security operatives were in the community last week to arrest some students for crimes that were not known.
“They always come here every weekend to make arrests, but after two days, the students will resurface in the community, claiming to have paid huge sums of money to secure their release,” he said.
He also revealed that a student of the Kwara Polytechnic was shot in the arm and he was in the hospital receiving treatment.
Imam called on the government to fish out the killer security operatives and ensure that they were made to face the full wrath of the law.
The situation led to a chaotic situation at the entrance gate of the polytechnic, as students reportedly blocked the road in protest of the reported killings of the victim of the incident by the Police.
The students made bon fire in front of the school and road leading to the state-owned polytechnic. The road was deserted, leaving commuters stranded for hours.
Police responds to allegation
Police Public Relations Officer of the Kwara State command Ajayi Okasanmi, who confirmed the incident in a statement, said the clash was between Police and detectives from the Special Tactical Squad, Abuja, and some cult groups who were meeting around the community.
The statement partly read, “The Kwara State Police Command wishes to allay the fears agitating the minds of the general public, especially residents around Kwara State Polytechnic area, that the pandemonium experienced today within the area arose as a result of the attack unleashed on a team of Police detectives from the Special Tactical Squad FIB, Abuja, who came on the trail of some cultists in the area.
“Recall that cultists attacked and killed a student of Kwara State University, Malete Friday 28/1/2022.
“Four of the cultists were arrested and dangerous weapons were recovered from the suspects.
“Information available to the STS team indicated that some of the cultists were hiding at Lajolo area of Kwara Polytechnic Ilorin, where similar attack was unleashed on one student named Idris Aderemi by same cultists at about 0600hrs today 29/1/22, in the same area. This prompted the visit to the area by the STS team.
“Surprisingly, the cultists who were already in ambush, attacked the police team damaging the police Hummer bus and inflicting a gunshot injury on the head of one police Sergeant, Adebayo Abdulahi, attached to the STS team.
“In the ensuing imbroglio, students in their numbers came out to block the road and prevented free flow of traffic and burning tyres on the road, ” he said.
Okasanmi added that the Police killed one of the suspects and injured two other members of the gang during the clash, but a security operative sustained an injury.
“The Commissioner of Police Kwara State, Tuesday Assayomo, immediately dispatched teams of policemen to the area to restore peace.
“However, two cultists, one Ahmed ‘m’ surname unknown and one Musibau ‘m’ A.K.A Shaban were arrested with one fabricated English pistol with three live ammunition, 2 live cartridges and one pistol magazine.
“The injured policeman and the suspects have been taken to the hospital for treatment.” he added.
Kwara Poly management reschedule exams
The management of the Kwara State Polytechnic has announced the rescheduling of an examinations earlier slated for Saturday as a result of chaos that happened at the school gate.
The rescheduling of the examinations was disclosed in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the institution Abdulkadir Yunus and made available to newsmen in Ilorin.
According to him, “the incident occurred early this morning between the police and Lajolo community and has nothing to do with the polytechnic students or the campus, as first semester CBT examinations are going on right now in the campus without any disturbance.”
The statement however said the polytechnic had magnanimously accepted the plea of the students, who could not make it to the campus before the blockade of the road , to reschedule their examinations on another date to be communicated to them via their heads of the department.
State government sues for calm, promises to get to the root of the matter
Kwara State Commissioner for Tertiary Education Senior Ibrahim Sulyman enjoined the students and the general public to go about their normal activities, as the incident had been brought under control.
In a statement by the Press Secretary for the Ministry of Tertiary Education Adamu Mohammed Saidu, quoting the commissioner, said some students who sustained injuries during the incident had been taken to the hospital and were now responding to treatment.
Sulyman assured the students and the general public of the state government’s commitment to ensuring a thorough investigation of the immediate and remote causes of the incident, with a view to preferring a lasting solution to it.
“The state government will not take it lightly with anyone that is found disturbing the peace of the state, no matter how highly placed,” he said.