Some policemen in Ibadan, the Oyo State, who were said to be in pursuit of suspected Internet fraudsters on Tuesday, have reportedly shot and killed a secondary schoolboy in the city.
According to the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), the boy was in his father’s car and was heading to school for his West African School Certification Examinations (WASCE) paper when the police’s gunshot hit him. He was confirmed dead at Welfare Hospital, where he was rushed to.
‘It happened at a traffic light stop on the road exiting the airport directly’, Timilehin Abimbola, a resident who was at the scene of the incident, said.
Video clips shared on X show the boy’s lifeless body on a hospital stretcher. He was dressed in his uniform and surrounded by a crowd visibly upset by the tragedy.
In one of the video clips, some speakers were heard saying, “Bullet”. “Let me see the bullet”. “This is the bullet”. “Police! Ah”! “It shall not be well with the police”. A man holds the bullet in the footage.
Abimbola told FIJ that he had just come out of his street to the Airport Road in Alakia when he saw a police van at the main gate.
He disclosed: ‘I asked a bike man why policemen were there, and if we were expecting dignitaries. He told me that the police shot a boy dead at the second airport gate while waiting for the traffic light to turn green in his father’s car.
‘I got to the traffic light and saw the blood on the sidewalk. Two minutes’ drive from there, I saw 10 police vans at the hospital where the boy was declared dead’.
FIJ learnt that when people began agitating, police officers fired shots into the air, prompting the crowd to disperse. The boy’s body was later taken to the Government House.
The state Police spokesperson, Chief Superintendent Adewale Osifeso failed to answer the phone when FIJ called him on Tuesday afternoon.
He had also not responded to the messages sent to him via WhatsApp and Short Message Service (SMS).
