…as police arrest, detain officer over the incident
OWOLOLA ADEBOLA
Ballistic experts at the Force Criminal Investigations Department, Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, Lagos, may soon be called upon to determine the fate of a mobile police officer being detained over alleged fatal shootings at the weekend in Ikorodu, Lagos.
Preliminary investigation into the matter is being conducted by homicide detectives attached to the State Criminal Investigations Department, Panti Street, Yaba, Lagos.
The detectives have been working round the clock to unravel the circumstances that led to the alleged shootings between some groups of land speculators in the NITEL area of Ikorodu Lagos, during which several people were said to have been injured.
The injured persons are being treated at a public hospital.
Two elderly persons, who were parties to a disputed land at the NITEL area of the town, were said to have gone to the local police station at Owutu to report the incident but were promptly arrested by the police, who later referred the matter to the Homicide Section of the police at SCID, Panti.
Eyewitnesses told our correspondent that the two parties to the disputed land clashed violently, causing pandemonium with people running for dear lives as guns boomed.
According to them, “When the dust settled, a victim of gunshot was found lifeless.”
It was further gathered that a Mobile Police, officially deployed in the area, was later questioned by his superior officers in an attempt to establish the truth.
The quizzed Mobile Police officer was said to have denied ever firing a shot that might have led to the death of one of the land warriors. He argued that ballistic experts should be invited to determine if the bullet casings reportedly found at the scene of the bloodletting and the ones extracted from the victims of the violence matched the ones in the magazine of his gun.
State Police Public Relations Officer, Superintendent Muyiwa Adejobi, during enquiries said investigation into the matter was ongoing.
But he could not ascertain whether the bullets from the alleged fatal shooting was from the gun of the quizzed Mobile police officer.
It was learnt that other arrested suspects were swiftly transferred to the State Criminal Investigations Department,Panti Street,Yaba, for further investigation.
One of the arrested persons, Seun Atoloye, was however released while another suspect, Mr. Owolabi Dada, is still being held.
The police spokesman stated that the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, had directed that the case be transferred to the State CID, Panti, for discreet investigation.
He disclosed that arms and ammunition were recovered in the course of a mop-up operation that followed the violence.
Adejobi added that the recovered ammunition included the ones from the gun of the Mobile Police officer.