Tears flowed on Friday as the family and friends of a motorcycle rider shot by the police in Lagos laid his remains to rest in accordance with Islamic rites.
The relatives of the deceased, Muazu Muhammed, appealed to the Lagos State Government to ensure justice was served in the matter.
Speaking with Sunday PUNCH, his maternal uncle, Mansur Muhammed, lamented the killing, adding that three bullets were removed from his body before he was buried.
“Although Muazu died because it was his time, that doesn’t excuse what happened; we still want the government to investigate and punish whoever is responsible for this. This injustice must not continue,” he said.
Muazu was shot dead in Onosa community in the Elemoro area of Ibeju-Lekki, along the Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos State, on Thursday night, when a policeman opened fire on a group of commercial motorcyclists.
The deceased, said to be a breadwinner for his widowed mother and younger siblings, was reportedly shot in the neck.
Sunday PUNCH gathered that the incident happened after an argument broke out between him and the policeman, who attempted to seize his motorcycle at Onosa Bus Stop around 9pm.
The Lagos State Government prohibits the operation of commercial motorcyclists from 8pm.
Muazu’s colleagues, Ibrahim Abdullahi and Muhammed Sani, who attempted to stop his motorcycle from being seized, also sustained gunshot wounds in the incident.
‘I was ready to die after they killed my brother’
Speaking from his hospital bed at JMC Hospital, a survivor, Abdullahi, explained that he confronted the policemen after Muazu was shot dead.
Abdullahi said, “One of my brothers went to buy fuel at a filling station. He was still within the normal time.
“But he did not know that the police had started trailing him back to our bus stop. We were about to go home when they seized the motorcycle belonging to one of us.
“When they were about to seize the second one, we resisted so that they wouldn’t. That was how they started shooting into the air.
“One of the policemen started dragging the motorcycle with Muazu. As my brother was dragging his motorcycle with them, the policeman shot him in the neck. He was hit in the neck, on the scapula, and on one side of his stomach. He died instantly.
“So, after they shot Muazu, I decided that I would not allow them to seize the bike even if they would also kill me. The policeman said he would shoot me if I continued to disagree with him, and I said he should go ahead. That was how he shot me in my arm. It was God who saved the third person (Muhammed Sani) because the bullet almost hit him on the side of his mouth after the policeman shot at him.”
He alleged that policemen in the area often harassed riders, seized their motorcycles, and demanded exorbitant sums to release them.
According to him, while they make N10,000 on the average per day, they pay N4000 to a task force, pay N1,200 for daily tickets, aside from the cost of fueling their motorcycles.
“Still, these policemen would disturb us for money. At the end of the day, how much do they expect us to take home as profit? All of us have our families, and we’re only struggling for our daily bread from this work. It’s not as if we also get profits that can help us from it,” he added.
He appealed to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to intervene, describing the constant harassment and unlawful seizure of motorcycles by the policemen as unbearable.
Abdullahi lamented that the deceased, who was the firstborn in his family, had been the sole provider for his widowed mother and younger siblings since the death of their father last year.
He said, “His siblings are still too young to fend for themselves, so how will his mother and young siblings survive now? Are they going to turn into beggars because there is nobody else to help them? How are we going to tell his mother and the siblings about Muazu’s death?”
Chaos, anger on the street
Muazu’s killing had sparked outrage in the area on Friday as scores of commercial motorcyclists staged protests by blocking the highway and lighting bonfires with disused tyres.
Vehicular movements were also disrupted until personnel from the Elemoro Police Division fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.
During a visit to the community on Friday, Sunday PUNCH observed that the regularly crowded Onosa bus stop remained deserted, while residents stood in twos and threes discussing the incident.
A resident, who did not mention his name for security reasons, explained that after the gunshots, Okada riders fled out of the community for fear of arrests by policemen, who had mobilised themselves en masse.
The armed policemen were also sighted at strategic spots at Onosa and Elemoro.
The resident revealed that the Okada riders fled to a nearby bus stop known as Igando, situated in another community along the expressway, to continue their business.
A task force officer at Igando Bus stop, Idowu Babatunde, complained about the policemen who repeatedly targeted motorcyclists despite adhering to the clear boundaries set for their operations.
According to him, the security personnel often seize motorcycles even when riders remain within the permitted inner streets, describing such practice as extortion.
He said, “Whenever the policemen come around, they will always look for one bike to arrest, even when the riders do not go against the boundary given to them. They’ve said that the riders can operate in the inner streets, but why are they arresting them and seizing their bikes even when they did not go against that? This is too much, and it must stop. This incident happened because the riders did not allow them to seize their bike, and this was not the first time things like this had happened. It also happened about five years ago at the next bus stop.
“The okada riders have been pushed to the extreme to the extent that even we who do not ride motorcycles always pity them because whenever they are arrested, at least they would have to pay N75,000 to bail it out. There is no sense in this at all because the policemen are just extorting them, so the government should do something about it as soon as possible.”
‘Officers involved in shooting in custody’
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Police Command on Friday said it had taken into custody six officers of the Elemoro Division who opened fire during an altercation with the okada riders in the community.
The spokesperson for the command, Benjamin Hundeyin, said in a statement that the Commissioner of Police, Olohundare Jimoh, after restoring normalcy in the community, met with the youth and community leaders to calm tension and avert further breakdown of law and order.
He added that although the policemen, whose identities were not disclosed, had been detained, the command would conduct a thorough investigation into the circumstances that resulted in the shootings, urging residents to remain calm.
(PUNCH)
