Posted by By Ngozi Uwujare, Ibadan on
A police Inspector in Osun State, who responded to a distress call and shot the suspect, narrowly escaped death recently as some touts, who thought he killed an innocent person, attempted to lynch him. He was, however, rescued and rushed to the hospital.
A police Inspector in Osun State, who responded to a distress call and shot the suspect, narrowly escaped death recently as some touts, who thought he killed an innocent person, attempted to lynch him. He was, however, rescued and rushed to the hospital.
The victim, Olu Adeniji, had received information that some robbers were operating in the Ijebu Ijesa area and quickly went after them.
The robbers were said to have dispossessed one Olatunji of N30,000 and driven off.
"They held a knife at his throat and demanded some money. The policemen went after the robbers and caught up with them in the Ikirun area, where the Inspector shot the suspect as he tried to escape," our source said.
Soon after he was shot, some touts belonging to the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) descended on him. They allegedly inflicted machete cuts on him and burnt his Mercedes Benz car tyres.
Narrating his ordeal on his hospital bed, Adeniji, who was writhing in pains, said he and his colleagues were only carrying out their responsibilities as policemen, but those they were trying to protect turned against them.
"I was on night duty when a good Samaritan came to Ibukun Police station to alert us that robbers had attacked some people. Three policemen followed me to the scene while we alerted Iragbgi police station. We started chasing the robbers," he said.
He explained that when they got to Ikirun road, the robbers jumped out of the car in a bid to escape. He shot one of them.
"I jumped out of the car to arrest the robber because was still breathing. The NURTW claimed I had killed an innocent person. They collected my riffle, beat me to a state of coma. Then had already poured fuel and kerosene on me and wanted to set me on fire before I was rescued and I found myself in the hospital," he said.
The man, who was robbed by the bandit, was said to have visited the mortuary and identified the dead robber as the person that robbed him.
An eyewitness, identified as Ezekiel Monday, said: "It was later they discovered that the person they thought was innocent person was an armed robber.
The Commissioner of Police, Mr Suleiman Fakai, described the incident as unfortunate.
"It is unfortunate that a good gesture by the police turned out to be a bad thing," he said. The case has been transferred to the Criminal Investigations Department for further investigations.