An Abuja-based lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, has knocked the Nigeria Police Force over the killing of a Lagos-based legal practitioner, Bolanle Raheem.
Olajengbesi, in a statement on Monday, described the Nigerian security agencies as the worst and most unprofessional in the world, saying the police must take responsibility and ensure justice.
Condemning Raheem’s killing, Olajengbesi linked it to the 2020 youth protests against extra-judicial killing by the police, which led to the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit of the police.
He said, “The reported killing of an innocent legal practitioner, wife, mother, and law-abiding citizen, Bolanle Raheem, on Christmas Day, while on a festive jaunt with her husband is one death too many. We all must now grieve as a professional body and as a community with shared citizenry for this incredible loss.
“One cannot imagine the trauma of the husband who sat right beside her in the car as she was shot to dead by a trigger-happy cocked-up bullish policeman with the manners of a criminal lout. It is unfathomable how an institution appointed as protector over the nation and citizenry would continue to churn out a murderous lot who shoots first and asks no further question.
“The action of that police officer stands condemned in the strongest possible term and the Nigeria Police Force as a whole must take vicarious liability over the culpability of its official in an open murder while making sure justice is manifestly done and seen to be done in the matter.
“By the tail end of the year 2020, scores upon scores of young men, women, children, and even the elderly, took over major cities all over the country with cries of marginalisation against the Nigeria Police Force especially its now disbanded SARS unit. The crescendo of that protest was the very sad event at the Lekki Toll Gate, the ghost of which continues to haunt the corridors of recent memory on the excesses of the Nigeria Police Force and their uninhibited love for extrajudicial killings of harmless, innocent Nigerians.
“Nigeria has the worst, most unprofessional, shameless, unintelligent, cowards, spineless security agencies in the whole world, operating with uncivilised aggression, coercion and blackmail.”
He extended condolences to the family of the victim, saying, “to lose a loved one in such a gruesome manner and on a day of rest, joy and felicitation is truly regretful. May her gentle, innocent soul rest in peace.”
The PUNCH reported that there was pandemonium in the Ajah area of Lagos State on Sunday when a policeman attached to the Ajah Police Station shot dead the female lawyer, Raheem.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the incident threw the community into confusion as the cop, who was with a team of policemen, fled the scene.
He was, however, caught and detained by the police.
It was learnt that Raheem, her sister, and four children were coming from an eatery in their car around 11am when the cop tried to stop them.
A source said the woman was trying to make a U-turn under the Ajah Bridge when the cop shot at her vehicle.
The bullet was said to have hit the victim; she was rushed to a hospital, where she was confirmed dead.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the incident, adding that the officer was in custody.
He said, “The officer involved in the shooting is an ASP. He has been arrested, detained, and will be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, for further investigations.”
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