Irate youths kill policeman over death of colleague

[Mirror]

There was pandemonium yesterday in Oke-Odan community in Yewa South Local Government Area of Ogun State as irate youths engaged men of the police as well as officers of the military security outfit, OP MESA, in a gun duel over the killing of one of their own.

The crisis, which started on Monday, culminated in the killing of a police inspector yesterday by the angry youths, who also burnt down two police vehicles and vandalised 12 others.

Eyewitness account said that the crisis started when a police officer attached to the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FED-SARS) from Zone II, Onikan Lagos, Inspector Olusesan Sounde, fired and killed one 30-year-old Yinka Falola.

The source further explained that the SARS official slapped Falola, who was on a motorbike coming from his farm and the deceased retaliated.

The development was said to have infuriated the police inspector, whose colleagues also described as a habitual drunk, who cocked his rifle and shot the deceased on the neck.

The SARS official was said to have insisted that Falola was a smuggler, which compelled him to fire the bullet that killed him.

The death of Falola on Monday, however, triggered off reprisal attacks by the youths of Oke Odan, a border community along the Sango-Ota/ Idiroko road, who mobilised to the police check point, violently protesting the killing.

Men of the special security outfit, who raced to the scene to appeal to the protesters to calm down, were also said to have been molested, a situation that also triggered off another round of shootouts.

Following the failure of men of 'OP MESA' to address the situation, the protesters were said to have marched down to the SARS checkpoint, where they set two police vehicles ablaze and vandalised 12 others at the community's police station.

The crisis, however, continued till yesterday when a police inspector, identified as Kolapo Lasisi, was killed in the incident.

Inspector Lasisi was said to be running away from the protesting youths before he got drowned in the swamp.

When contacted, the command's Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Muyiwa Adejobi, confirmed the incident, but added that the police inspector was killed by the irate youths.

Adejobi said the youths carried out a midnight raid on the SARS checkpoint where they attacked Inspector Lasisi and hacked him to death before burying him in the swamp and went away with his riffle. T

he PPRO further stated that the state Commissioner of Police, Ikhemefuna Okoye, visited Oke Odan yesterday, where he had a meeting with the traditional ruler of the community over the matter.

Adejobi, who said the inspector who killed Falola had already been locked up at the command headquarters in Eleweran, also added that the command had exhumed the body of the inspector from where they buried him.

"The two families of late Falola as well as the slain inspector are demanding for justice: we will ensure that justice is done, particularly that the riffle of the inspector is still missing.

"We need our riffle and we must get it as well as the man who killed the inspector".

He further stated that the State Criminal Investigating Department (SCID) was already investigating the matter, stressing that the culprits would be prosecuted after investigations might have been concluded.