Police Accused Of Killing Man At Checkpoint In Ibadan

Residents of Felele area of Ibadan, Oyo State capital, on Wednesday, insisted that the policemen from Felele Police Station, who were at a stop and search point at the time an unregistered Toyota Corolla car was stopped, should be held responsible for the death of the man who drove the vehicle.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune at the premises of a popular hospital at Felele Layout, one of the residents, Mr Bimbo Bamidele, said the unregistered vehicle was coming from the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and ran into some police officers as it turned into Felele junction.

The vehicle, he said, had all necessary documents which had been shown to the policemen and which they had collected. One of the police officers was said to have suddenly cocked his gun and at the sight of the cocked gun, the driver, Mr Niyi Faloyo, a 42-year-old surveyor and father of two, was said to have tilted to one side of his body while his speech became slurred.

"Why should the officer cock his gun if he did not have the intention to shoot?" asked Bamidele and some men who were with him. "And why did they leave immediately the man's situation began to deteriorate. They even took the car's documents away," another resident volunteered.

Mr Faloyo's friend, who did not disclose his name and who was by his side at the time of the incident, said an okada rider quickly assisted him to drive his friend to the nearest clinic, where he was pronounced clinically dead at 12:45p.m.

According to him, Mr Faloyo, an indigene of Ijare in Ondo State, used to help him drive cars which he bought to his place because he cannot drive and that the car in question had been driven to the Iwo Road end of Ibadan since Tuesday. "He called me to say that he was less busy at work and could quickly help me take the vehicle to my place. We were coming when this happened. "

Reports emanating from the hospital indicated that the deceased was hypertensive as his blood pressure was 260/150 at the time he was rushed to the hospital.

At the Felele Police Station, where the corpse was taken on leaving the hospital, the friend to the deceased, who was visibly disorganised, could not ascertain if the vehicle's documents were complete or not. So, he left the documents at the station, promising to go back for them while claiming that his purse and the sum of N30,000 was with the policemen they met at the stop and search point.

Reports emanating from the Felele Police Station indicated that the police officers involved in the incident had been detained but when contacted, the station's Divisional Police Officer, Mr Sodipo directed the Nigerian Tribune to the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bisi Ilobanafor.

DSP Ilobanafor, who spoke on phone said, "The policemen were performing their legal duty of checking the vehicle" and that they collected the particulars of the vehicle to verify that it was not a stolen vehicle. "The claim that an officer cocked a gun is spurious and unfounded because there was nothing like that," the PPRO said.

"It was while the vehicle was being checked that the man entered into a spree and was foaming in the mouth and by the time he was rushed to the hospital, he had died. It was said at the hospital that he died of heart attack. His blood pressure was too high.

"Most people do not take their health seriously.

Most people do not check their blood pressure at all. Anything could have caused the man's death but it was not the policemen. They did not in any way contribute to the man's death.

"We empathise with the man's family and enjoin members of the public to take their health issues more seriously," the solice spokesman said.