Many Lagosians shed tears lastweek when
policemen shot directly at five innocent
people in a car, on Sunday, for refusing to
stop their vehicle when instructed to do
so. As the two gunshots rent the air,
people at Mile 2 area of the metropolis
scampered away on their feet for safety,
while those in their different vehicles
abandoned them and took to their heels.
When the dust settled down, blood was
gushing out from two of the passengers in
the Honda car- Pa Elijah Ipere, 76, and the
16- year- old boy, Goddey Ekubor, alleged
to be physically challenged.
LEADERSHIP Friday gathered that the
people were returning from Shogunle,
where they attended a family meeting
when the ugly incident took place on the
way to their residences at Ajegunle area,
around 6.30pm.
The occupants of the vehicle were said to
have escaped death by the whiskers. One
of the bullets hit a 76 – year -old man
identified as Elijah Ipere in the chest
region and the ammunition landed in his
stomach. The other bullet hit the
physically challenged Ekubor, in the lap.
The driver of the vehicle, Edwin
Akperera, disclosed that his 3- year- old
son, Isaac Akperera was also in the
vehicle.
“We were returning from a family
meeting held at Shogunle, in Ikeja.I was
driving a Honda car conveying all of us.
We were five in number. But when we
got to Mile 2, I missed my route few
metres away and decided to reverse the
car and link up to the service lane so that
we could descend from the bridge and
negotiate to Suru- Alaba- Orile road. As I
was doing that, unknown to me,
policemen attached to RRS (Rapid
Respond Squad) had seen me. I wanted to
negotiate to the service lane from the
Apapa- Oshodi expressway and make a C-
turn to Badagry – Orile expressway when
they suddenly arrived and flagged me
down but I did not stop. They mounted a
motorcycle and followed me from the
Jakande estate side of Mile 2 to Satelite
side of Mile 2 under Satelite police station.
They wanted to waylay me but when I did
not stop they opened fire on us.
The bullet hit my 76 years old uncle and
Goddey, a young man who is physically
challenged . “Immediately they fired the
shots,the policemen vanished from the
scene but if I see them, I can recognize
them. They were attached to the Rapid
Respond Squad of the Lagos State police
command. All I did was to move the
vehicle to the gate of Nigeria Army Signal
Barracks, Mile 2, where the soldiers on
duty at the gate told me to remove the
vehicle from their area because they had
nothing to do with the matter.
They however advised me to drive to
Layeni police station and make a report’’.
Layeni police station seemed to be the
closest police station from there and I
obeyed. At Layeni, the police advised me
not to waste more time in reporting but
to move the victims to the nearest
hospital to save their lives. I obeyed and
moved them to a private hospital but they
immediately referred me to a general
hospital at Oregie, in Ajegunle.
“The general hospital in turn referred me
to the general hospital Marina street, in
Lagos, where they were given first aid.
After that, we moved them to a native
doctor who knows how to remove bullets.
You know, hospitals will prefer to operate
upon somebody but the native doctors
have their ways of removing bullets. “My
three- year -old son, Isaac was so scared.
He is still shocked over the incident. He
was screaming. He had never seen such
blood gushing out of people before. When
I heard the shots, I never knew it was
fired at us until I looked at my uncle at
the front seat and saw blood gushing out
of his body.
The front seat and the floor had become a
pool of blood. I also screamed. I looked at
my back and saw the other boy called
Goddey writhing in pains.
I wept. I cried as I prayed that nothing
should happen to them. The floor of the
back seat of the vehicle was full of blood.
What will I tell my people? They only
followed me to our family event.” he said.
Though, this journalist was not allowed
to see the victims, the native doctor who
specialized in removing the ammunition,
Alex Oneke said,
“God saved the two victims.They would
have died. When they brought them, I
examined them and removed the bullet
from the stomach of the old man. He was
shot close to the chest. The bullet landed
inside his stomach. I have removed the
bullet. The other person seemed to be an
imbecile.. The bullet hit him in the lap
and I have extracted it. They are resting
for now. Later, they have to go and dress
the wounds at any hospital,” he said.
On whether Oneke has the right to
remove or cure people with bullet
wounds, he has this to say:
“I know my work and I’m trained. I have
been doing this work for a very long time.
I have certificate for it. We are traditional
doctors. I live at Okito Street, here in
Ajegunle.” An eye witness, who identified
himself as Muyiwa Ademola, told this
reporter that he took to his heels when he
heard gunshots close to him.
They were deafening to his ears. “I was
standing close to the Mile 2 Bridge when
the police fired gunshots and I had to run
for my dear life. In short, I abandoned my
wife and two kids as I was escaping from
the scene..
My wife sells ‘ogogoro’ (local gin) at Mile
2. People were running as fast as their
legs could carry them. People were
blaming me that I ran away and
abandoned my wife but I told them that is
how it is supposed to be in times of war.
It is the survival of the fittest. Anybody
the police kills is dead and dead without
compensation. The police can even deny
that they did not shoot anybody and that
is why we have to be careful, “he said. A
street urchin (agbero), who identified
himself as Ade, said he wanted to collect
money from a conductor of a mini- bus
when he heard the gunshot and fled from
the scene.
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