A security guard identified as Koleosho Abayomi was reportedly shot by a policeman at Lekki Peninsula Scheme II, in Eti Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State.
According to the reports, the incident occur when the officer and three colleagues, all attached to the Ogombo Police Station, stormed the area to enforce the government’s ban on motorcycle operations.
Speaking to the reporters, the security guard said following the ban, some commercial motorcyclists were allowed to operate on the estate to ease the movement of residents, adding that when the policemen got to the gate, one of his colleagues, Friday, stopped their patrol vehicle.
Abayomi said the policemen got down from the vehicle to challenge the security guard for stopping them. He said when the situation was getting out of hand, he intervened.
He also said during the intervention, one of the policemen shot him.
Abayomi explained, “Since the ban on Okada in Lagos State, the Lekki Peninsula Scheme II registered its own motorcycles that operated within the estate.
“The motorcycles do not go out of the estate to operate. The measure was in place to ease the movement of residents in the estate. But since the ban on Okada operations in the state, the police at the Ogombo division usually come into the estate to raid motorcyclists.
“These motorcyclists have their jackets with identification numbers, so when the complaint got to us, we reported it to the chairman of the estate, but it took time before he reported the case to the DPO to caution his men since the motorcyclists don’t operate outside the estate.
“So, the policemen kept coming. When their presence could no longer be tolerated, the chairman instructed us to always ask about their mission and that was what caused the problem that day.
“When Friday flagged them down on July 17 and the policemen got out of the patrol vehicle to arrest him, I quickly intervened and sent a signal to my CSO, Greg. When he came, he was trying to pacify them when one of them shot my right thigh.
“Immediately, the CSO called the DPO and he agreed to take full responsibility for what happened. I was rushed to a nearby hospital, where I was admitted for two weeks. The doctor asked me to leave because out of the N640,000 hospital bill, the DPO only dropped N300,000.”
Abayomi said the DPO gave a guard who took him to the general hospital N230,000, adding that the money finished within a week.
Confirming the incident, the Chairman of the estate, Moses Kamanya, said the policemen usually visited the estate on the pretext of searching for Internet fraudsters.
He said, however, the cops usually conducted ‘illegal’ stop-and-search on the estate.
“On that very day, the policemen were grossly at fault and we ensured that the policeman who shot the security guard faced the full wrath of the law. As a scheme, we paid the bill for his discharge from the hospital when the police didn’t come. It was a sad incident,” he added.
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