Policeman shoots self after killing traveller
MAY 12, 2013
Hammad Abdulazeez
Kelani Oburo never had an inkling of the tragic drama that was to play out in the evening of April 14, 2013 when his cousin, 32-year-old Hammad Abdulazeez, left his apartment for the motor park at Adatan in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Abdulazeez was going to visit his parents in Ibadan, Oyo State in order to give them their monthly stipend, Oburo told our correspondent.
But that journey was never to be as he had barely left Abeokuta when a policeman identified as Amen shot him dead under controversial circumstances.
Oburo explained, “He took off in the evening that day. We spoke on the phone when he got a bus. But I later learnt that the bus developed a fault when they got to Odeda Road.
“Some of the passengers who were around told us that Abdulazeez and a couple of other passengers got a lift from a private car. But they soon ran into a checkpoint set up by some policemen on Odeda Road. It had already become dark by that time.”
Saturday PUNCH learnt that a heated argument ensued between one of the policemen and the driver of the car. But when the argument became long-drawn and more heated, Abdulazeez reportedly got out of the car to appeal to both parties and douse the tension. But that was his undoing.
It is not clear what caused the argument or what infuriated the policeman. Our correspondent learnt that the policeman raised his gun and shot Abdulazeez in the left side of his chest.
“His death was prompt after he was shot. People who called us that day said he died very quickly at the spot,” Oburo told Saturday PUNCH.
But things were to become weirder.
Shortly after he shot Abdulazeez, Amen allegedly turned his service rifle on himself and shot himself in the side – the same left side where he shot his victim.
Our correspondent learnt that the incident caused so much commotion that the policemen and eyewitnesses around fled in confusion before coming back to take the bodies to the hospital. Both corpses were taken to the Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta.
On Monday, during a visit to the area where the incident was said to have taken place, our correspondent saw no checkpoint there.
A man vending engine oil in the area told our correspondent that he heard about the incident even though he did not witness it.
“I am not sure either whether the policemen involved in the case were from Odeda Police Division. The incident is still a subject of discussion around here. I have not heard anything like that before in my life. It is mysterious,” he said.
A call to the spokesperson for the Ogun State Police Command, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, indicated that his line was switched off when our correspondent tried to contact him to make findings about the case.
However, when the father of the deceased, Alhaji Hafiz Adepoju, an Imam in a mosque in Ibadan, spoke with our correspondent on the telephone, the tone of his voice and what he said showed that Abdulazeez was the breadwinner of his household.
The Imam told Saturday PUNCH, “When a policeman called me on the telephone the day after the incident happened, they said we should come to Odeda Police Station in Abeokuta and I heard something like my son had been involved in an accident. My other children were the ones who went there and discovered that my son had been murdered and his body had already been taken to the mortuary.
“They said they also saw the body of the policeman who shot him in the mortuary as well. Hammad (Abdulazeez) was my first son and he was the one responsible for the upkeep of his siblings. He was the one we all depended on. I cannot tell you what his murder has done to me. That policeman has destroyed us.”
Rasheed, the deceased’s brother, corroborated his father’s account. He said their house in Ibadan had become like a graveyard since the incident.
“My mother is another case entirely. She is seriously ill now because of the incident. She faints at will and we have to resuscitate her every time. That happens when someone mentions my brother’s name,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment