Mobile Police stray bullet kills father of five in Lagos

Bus drivers plying the Okoko/CMS today boycotted route to protest the alleged killing of their chairman, Sunday evening by a Mobile policeman.

The deceased, identified simply as Salau Fatai was said to have been hit by a stray bullet from a Mobile policeman, at Doyin bus-stop in Orile area of Lagos. 

The policeman with an undisclosed identity was escorting a jeep. He was said to have fired some shots into the air apparently to disperse vehicles which blocked the road, only for a stray bullet to hit Fatai

One of the protesting drivers, Ishola Manni who spoke with this reporter, said: Our chairman and colleague, Fatai, popularly called Oshe was killed by a Mobile policeman on Sunday. He died leaving behind a wife and five children. Who will take care of them? he asked . 

An eye witness, Ebere Madu explained: “I was attending to some customers when we heard some gun shots. Everyone ran away, thinking it was a robbery operation. But by the time the whole place was clam, we were told that a man who was hit by a stray bullet fired by a Mobile policeman was lying in the pool of his blood.

“When the Policeman realised what happened, he disappeared from the scene, leaving the vehicle he was escorting. Some boys in the area swung into action and arrested the occupant of the jeep whom they handed over to policemen at Orile division. The corpse was taken to the police station, from where it was taken to another location”. 

A mechanic, who identified himself simply as Fashola, said that the incident happened barely an hour after the deceased left his work shop.

He said: “He brought his vehicle, a coastal bus for repairs at my workshop at school bus-stop. In the process, an apprentice of his, Kehinde, came in his vehicle to collect something from the deceased. Thereafter, he told me he was going home (Oko-Afor) they left in Kehinde’s vehicle at about 6pm. Barely one hour later, I got a telephone call that he was killed by a stray bullet”.

Culle from Vanguard