Connect with us
Advertisement

Gist

Soldiers Allegedly Shot Dead A Motorcyclist Days To His Wedding In Lagos

Published

on

Soldier Shoots Okada Rider, Kills Nursing Mother, Baby Over N200 Bribe
Advertisement

Traders, customers reportedly flee in fear as six armed men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and two armed soldiers stormed a local market in Lagos State last Tuesday.

Reports reaching Naija News at this time confirmed that a motorcyclist whose name is identified as Babangida Abdullahi was killed by an officer of the Nigerian army during the operation.

The PUNCH reports that the raid was jointly carried out by soldiers attached to the 174 Battalion Army Barracks and operatives of the NDLEA at the Flower Market, Ikorodu North Local Council Development Area of the state. It was reported that Abdullahi and one of his friends, Saminu, were inside a shanty in the market when the security men stormed the market area around 6.15 pm.

Traders and customers upon the arrival of the force men reportedly took to their heels, leaving their businesses.

Advertisement

Giving details of the incident on Sunday (yesterday), Saminu disclosed that he was in the Shanty with his friend Abdullahi when the law enforcement agents stormed the market. He confirmed that Abdullahi got shot while they were all running for safety.

He said, “Six armed NDLEA operatives and two armed soldiers were involved in the raid. They came in their patrol vehicles and parked at a location in the market and moved in on their target. I was inside the shanty with Abdullahi when people started running. I rushed out and saw the situation and also ran for safety.

“One of the soldiers shot at the shanty, where Abdullahi was, twice and a bullet penetrated the wood and hit him in his rib. Immediately they saw that the bullet had hit Abdullahi, they retracted and fled. We quickly came back to Abdullahi and rushed him to a nearby hospital, but he, unfortunately, died on the way. He was a commercial motorcyclist like me.”

Advertisement

Expressing his sadness with the development, the personal assistant to the Seriki of the Hausa community in the market, Ali Ahmed, said the commercial motorcyclist was murdered just a few days to his traditional marriage, adding that he just returned from his hometown a few days after concluding plans for the wedding.

He said: “Our Seriki is currently not around. All of us were here in the office when we suddenly observed that people were running; we suddenly heard the sound of gunshots. We became worried and someone told us that Abdullahi had been shot.

“We proceeded to the scene of the incident but didn’t see any of the NDLEA operatives and soldiers there. They left immediately they realised that they had killed someone, but we saw some of the eyewitnesses carrying Abdullahi to the hospital.

Advertisement
Advertisement

“When we asked them what happened, they told us that operatives of the NDLEA and soldiers perpetrated the act. Before we got to the hospital with Abdullahi, he had died. The bullet hit him in his rib; we really don’t know what he did for them to have shot him. He was killed four days after he returned from his hometown to conclude plans for his traditional marriage. We were unaware of the raid until we saw people running.”

However, the spokesman for the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, when contacted vindicated the law enforcement agency by saying that none of his officials involved in the raid fired the shots that killed the motorcyclist.

He said: “The operation was a joint one, but the men of the NDLEA never killed anybody. It was an officer of another security agency involved in the joint operation that fired the shot and the agency involved has already handled the matter and I am aware that the victim has been buried. Even though the NDLEA was involved in the operation, the person was not killed by any of our men.”

Reacting to the incident, the spokesman for the 81 Division Nigeria Army, Major Olaniyi Osoba, said, “The appropriate department will investigate the matter and we will let you know the outcome because this matter requires investigation as there are a lot of things we don’t understand now, but the outcome of the investigation will determine everything. So, give us some time for investigation on the subject matter.”

Meanwhile, the Oyo State police command, on Sunday, confirmed the detention of some members of the Odua Peoples Congress who arrested notorious Fulani warlord, Iskilu Wakili.
The development was confirmed in a statement released by the command on Sunday, Naija News reports.