By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan.
A middle aged man identified as Mr Yomi Olaitan is now receiving treatment at the University College Hospital, UCH after he was on Monday hit by police bullet in his right eye at Oje market, Agodi gate road in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
According to Olaitan’s younger brother who was in a brown Honda Accord car with his brother when the incident happened, the bullet was from an unidentified Police Officer attached to Police Area Command, Idi-Ape Ibadan.
The victim was said to be driving his Honda Accord car behind a truck, when he was shot in the right eye leaving his brown Ankara soaked with blood.
It was learnt that the truck driver was engaged in a hot argument with the police officers over an unknown issue which later degenerated into sporadic shooting by one of the officers while Olaitan, and other two occupants in his car were awaiting the situation to calm.
The eye witness stressed that at this juncture,”from nowhere, an officer just came, brandishing gun around the place, and the next thing we saw was my brother shouting my eyes, with blood dripping his clothes”.
“They cannot deny it because there were two holes of gunshots by the driver side of the car. Nigerian Police cannot continue with this brutality, they nearly kill my brother. We were coming from Gate and at Oje, a police search team was trying to extort money from the driver of a truck in front of our car. The driver refused to part with his hard earned money, insisting that he is not a criminal nor carrying suspected goods” he said.
Olaitan was later rushed to Molly hospital for first aid treatment and undergone some scan processes before he was rushed to the University College Hospital, UCH Ibadan, where he was admitted at West I private ward before.
undergoing another surgery.
Speaking, Oyo state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, SP Adekunle Ajisebutu said the action was unintentional, saying, “the bullet “ricocheted” and hit the victim.
SP Ajisebutu stressed that the policemen were actually carrying out their lawful duty as at the time of the incident, adding, “some policemen were responding to a distress call when the incident happened”.
“A truck had abducted an FRSC staff who wanted to effect arrest of an offending driver who drove recklessly and dangerously, thereby causing accident which affected three vehicles at Iwo Road by Mr Bigg’s area. The erring driver took the FRSC staff to an unknown destination but was accosted at Oje area by some policemen who attempted to rescue the adopted Road Safety officer”.
He added that “in order to demobilize the truck, the police shot at the tyre and succeeded in rescuing the victim. A bullet ricocheted and hit the victim. Victim was rushed to UCH for medical treatment and is responding to treatment.”
