Protests erupted on Saturday in Imala/Elega area of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, following the killing of a betting agent identified as Abiodun Anuoluwapo by a trigger-happy police officer late Friday night.
HeapNews gathered that Anuoluwapo, a graduate of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, operated a Bet9ja shop in front of a popular hotel, First Point, in the area and was closing his shop for the day when he was gunned down.
An eyewitness stated that the officers who emerged from the hotel were drunk before one of them released the bullet. Another eyewitness report noted that the officers were either on a raid or chasing a suspect when one of them accidentally killed Anuoluwa, popularly called Pepe, who was in front of his shop.
HeapNews further gathered that the officers immediately escaped into the hotel and called for backup before they later escaped from the hotel, about three hours later. The eyewitnesses further revealed that the officers and the backup shot sporadically to pave way for their escape from the scene.
“The guy owned a shop opposite the First Point Hotel. The police were chasing someone or on raid and there was accidental discharge, the stray bullet hit the guy and the guy died immediately “The youth in the area tried to hold down the policemen and they ran into the first point. They had to reinforce to get more police to come to rescue them before they were able to run away later around past 11pm. The incident happened around 8pm.
“As they were trying to disperse the protesting youths, they kept shooting a lot of guns. In fact, fear gripped everybody. More youths were also hit by guns but they survived it. One of the survivors’ name is Hassan, he also has a shop nearby,” an eyewitness said.
When HeapNews visited the area, blood stains were seen from the entrance of the shop to the road side, showing clearly that the bullet actually hit the guy at the entrance of his shop.
Some of the youths in the area alleged that it was an officer in charge of Fadage police post who fired the shot, while another alleged that it was the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Adatan who fired the shot. They also accused police officers of coming to the area and the popular hotel to drink beers.
However, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola, confirmed the incident. She added that the State The Commissioner of Police has made contacts with all stakeholders involved to start an investigation.
“We have gotten the information that one Aanu was a victim, it is not easy to say exactly what happened but the CP is in touch with the stakeholders. He has called everybody involved so that we can start investigating what happened. We are aware, we have been informed, but we are still deliberating on the matter,” she said.