On the first Monday of February 2014
when many looked forward to the new month with aspirations, tragedy struck at
Ayinla Junction in Agbado area of Ijaiye Ojokoro Local Government Area of Lagos;
The life of a 36-year-old tricyclist, Richard Samuel, was
allegedly terminated by a trigger-intoxicated OP MESA official, simply
identified as Mohammed, over the tricyclist’s failure to pay an illegal daily
levy of N500.
According to Adegoke Samson, Chairman of the Agbado/Dalemo
unit of the Tricycle Owners Association of Nigeria, TORA, who narrated the
event, when two OP-MESA officials approached him around 10.am with vehicle
number plate KJA 971 AR and inscription ‘OP MESA 039’ for the usual N500, he summoned
Samuel, popularly known as Small Sunday, being their Financial Secretary, to
hand them the sum. But there were only N1,000 notes with Samuel and he asked to
be excused to go and get smaller denomination of the notes.
As reported by Adegoke, while Samuel was away to get
the smaller naira notes, another tricyclist in same association came by and
acerbically queried why they should attend to the officers who had already
collected same amount of money from a neighbouring tricycle unit. Meantime, one
of the officers, Mohammed, had become angry and probably suspicious of Samuel’s
intention.
“He left and returned later in rage, grabbing Samuel by his
trousers and ordering him to enter into their vehicle. He queried him saying:
‘So you don’t want to give me the money? Do you think I am a police officer? I
will kill you now!’. Samuel was stunned at his outrage and refused to enter
their vehicle. At this time, he had the N500 note and was pleading with the man
to collect it. Instead of yielding, the officer suddenly pointed his gun at
Samuel at close range and shot him dead on the spot.
When his colleague, a fellow officer, queried his
superfluous action, he immediately shot him dead as well, ordering a private
vehicle owner driving past to stop, at gun point, and dragging the corpse of
his colleague into the vehicle whose driver he immediately ordered to drive
off. He could not use their vehicle because he had punctured one of its tyres
in the course of his shooting-spree. That was how he escaped and left their
driver who was later apprehended by officers of Ebenezer Police Station by
Block Bus Stop in Jankara”, Adegoke explained.
Samuel’s widow, Mrs.Rukayat Samuel, a 30-year-old housewife
who trained as a chemist and auxiliary nurse but was advised by her husband to
stay at home to care for their children, couldn’t fight back tears as she
spoke.
“When a friend called to inform me that Monday morning, I
shouted and fainted. I demanded to know my husband’s killer and was taken to
Ebenezer Police Station where the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, informed me
that the matter had been immediately transferred to the Criminal Investigation
Department, Panti that Tuesday morning since it was a murder case.
The police at the Ebenezer station tried very well for me.
They offered to take me and my accompanying family members to Panti, which they
did the following day. There, I saw the OP MESA vehicle used by my husband’s
killer.
“We were shocked to find out that that same Wednesday morning,
OP MESA officials were at Panti to demand the release of the driver of the
vehicle. The police, however, insisted Mohammed must be fished out first. We
were told the OP MESA officials claimed my husband was shot because he was
caught smoking marijuana in a marijuana joint.
That is blatant lie because a crowd of people at Ayinla
junction witnessed how he shot my husband and then shot his colleague who
reacted. Now they want to play trick and cover up the crime to prevent justice.
The policemen at Panti later confirmed that Mohammed had been detained in their
office at PWD, near Oshodi.
”The truth is that my husband never even smoked cigarette,
not to talk of Marijuana. I had known him for 17 years. He never smoked
cigarette and he never came home late at night. His job has been riding the
tricycle for some years now.”
Speaking
on the matter, the mother of the deceased had this to say;
Get justice for my son and help his family. In my days as a
younger person, soldiers lived in the barracks; I wonder why soldiers, now in
the name of OP MESA, extort motorists at their parks and even shoot those who
do not oblige them on time! Lagos State government and the police should
please fish out the killer-soldier, Mohammed. Otherwise, he will go on killing
others with impunity. Now he has made my son’s children fatherless and his
wife, a widow; no one to take care of us now.”
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