THE Police is hiding the identity of a killer cop who killed a female lawyer in Lagos on Christmas Day.
The female lawyer, Bolanle Raheem, was shot by the killer cop who was allegedly extorting motorists with other members of his team under the Ajah Bridge, near the Ajiwe Police Station, in the Ajah Area of Lagos State.
The cop, said to be an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), is believed to be attached to the Ajiwe Police Station.
The ICIR gathered that about three weeks ago, a young man, Gafaru Buraimoh, was shot dead by a police officer attached to the same Ajiwe Police Station.
The female lawyer was reportedly returning from a Christmas Service when she was shot by the killer cop.
The cop shot Bolanle in the chest, at close range, after asking her husband, who was driving, to park the vehicle, according to multiple reports.
The spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, a Superintendent of Police (SP), confirmed the incident in a statement on December 26.
The police spokesperson identified the killer cop as an ASP.
But that was as far as the Lagos State police spokesperson went in revealing the killer cop’s identity.
The statement did not name the culprit, even though he is said to be in detention. The statement added that the killer cop is being investigated alongside two members of his team.
“The ASP that shot and two others with him have since been taken into custody. They are to be moved to the SCID (State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department) for further investigation,” Hundeyin said in the statement.
The ICIR observes that the police usually disclose the identity of suspects arrested for various criminal offences.
As the spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command, Hundeyin regularly issues statements on arrests and other activities of the Force in the state. The names and pictures of arrested suspects are usually included in the press statements he releases via various platforms, including Twitter and email.
The failure to disclose the identity of the killer cop who killed Bolanle, the female lawyer, in Lagos on December 25, has raised eyebrows. There are concerns that the culprit may walk free if his identity is not made known to the public.
In an interview with The ICIR on Monday, December 26, the National Coordinator of the Human Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), Emmanuel Onwubiko expressed concerns at the development.
Onwubiko noted that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has a habit of shielding rogue officers.
“The Nigeria Police Force is a dysfunctional institution which does not respect the ideals of professionalism. It is an institution that is in progressive decay, and that is one of the reasons why they conceal the identity of their members who commit offences and who are actually rogue policemen. And when an institution protects the identity of its rogue members, that institution becomes a rogue institution,” Onwubiko told The ICIR in a telephone interview.
Reacting to concerns that the killer cop could walk free if his identity was not revealed, Onwubiko said the media and civil society organisations should prevent that from happening.
He said, “The police will be able to succeed in shielding these rogue policemen from justice if the media does not follow up on cases such as these. It is not enough to just report these cases once and forget about them. There should be follow-up reports; reporters should stay on these cases. If care is not taken the guy will just go back to work so it is left for the media and civil society organisations to ensure that that does not happen.”