John Olatona Bamidele, a divisional police officer in Irewole Local Government Area, Osun State, has been identified by witnesses as the person who shot a passenger in the head and a driver named Saheed Akinrole at Naira and Kobo Garage in Ikire on Monday morning.
A woman identified as the passenger’s wife was crying uncontrollably shortly after the incident and directly accused the DPO of killing her husband.
“I was in the back seat while my husband from in the passenger seat beside the driver when it happened,” the woman said in an interview recorded in Yoruba by a community blog page.
“All I knew was that the police recklessly manoeuvred against our car and began shooting. The DPO killed my husband by a stray bullet that pierced through the window into his head.”
The identity of the passenger, a man who seemed to be in his 50s, had not been verified at press time but he was said to be an indigene of the town just arriving in a cream-coloured SUV from Ibadan, Oyo State, in company of his family.
Groups within the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) have been fomenting violence in the past months to claim the leadership of the union in the state.
On Sunday, information circulated in Ikire that a faction was planning to take over Naira and Kobo Motor Park on Monday morning.
According to a resident, who did not want to be named, the occupying faction briefed Akinrole ahead. The opposing faction arrived in a convoy in the morning and they were accompanied by a police team led by Bamidele.
“We have been crying out to the IGP to redeploy him because he has been causing havoc to homes and our people. He had previously led thugs to our secretariat to chase local government officials away,” the community resident said.
“His (Bamidele’s) method is to first drive to a location of interest, chase perceived enemies away and then inform thugs and opposition politicians to take over.
“He started shooting up in the air and some park officials maintained that they constituted no harm and asked him to go after those disturbing their peace. Before they knew what he was up to, he shot at Akinrole.
“As the situation escalated, a man in a moving vehicle was shot and died instantly and about four people were hospitalised. Though unverified, I learnt a policeman was also shot.”
The driver of the SUV corroborated the victim’s wife’s account.
“We were coming from Ibadan and when we got to the Ikire Junction, a white police patrol truck recklessly manoeuvred around us. Then very quickly, the police started shooting,” explained the driver.
Contacted for comment on Monday evening, Abiodun Ojelabi, the spokesperson for the police command in the state, referred FIJ to a statement in which he had confirmed two people dead, promising the incident would be investigated