Godwin Agbo, a dispatch rider with the online shopping mall Jumia, was knocked down by Adeoye Adekunle, who drove a Lexus RX with registration number EKY 337 EL, around Forte Oil, Ring Road, in the Oluyole area of Ibadan on Friday because of what Emmanuel Agbo, the deceased ‘s brother, described as a minor argument.

In the night, Agbo was rushed to two clinical hospitals, where he was pronounced dead before “his corpse was brought back to the incident scene”.

On Monday, FIJ learnt, Emmanuel put a phone call through to SP Adewale Osifeso, the Oyo State Police Public Relations Officer, complaining bitterly about how irresponsibly the police officers stationed at the Iyaganku Police Division were handling the matter.

A Forte Oil attendant, Ambrose, said “the driver was driving at a very high speed and Godwin’s bike was in the front. He drove away after hitting Godwin, and passed through the one way in a bid to escape. But then, a trailer was making a U-turn and he was caught by the two riders that ran after him.”  

Another eyewitness, Sunday, who is a shoe trader, stated that Godwin was still alive at “the point he was crushed”.

“I begged the people to help take him to the hospital, and we did but he was rejected. When we got back to the scene from the hospital, the driver attempted to run away but he was intercepted by some angry mob,” he said.

“I was sat with the driver on the same bike when he was being taken to Oluyole Police Station. We were given two police officers to follow us down to Iyagunku Police Station, where the case was later transferred to.”

Asked whether the murder was intentional or accidental, Adekunle’s brother, Kola, told FIJ on Thursday that “this time around we can’t even say whether it was accidental or intentional. A life has been lost, and we have to sympathise with the family. I can’t really talk about the issue for now because of the family. I hope you understand”.

“Let me burst your bubble: his phone was stolen. So many things were stolen from his car at the scene of the incident. But who do we explain those ones to? This is Nigeria, and people can go on social media and say what they like.”

‘THEY TOOK US TO THE MORTUARY’

“He was chasing him with his car till he hit him down and ran over him,” Emmanuel said of the killer of his brother. “He tried to escape but was later apprehended.”

“I doubt my brother had cast him stones as the driver and Iyagunku Police Station claim. It was just a misunderstanding that happened between them, which is a common thing on highways among drivers and riders.

“My brother was taken to two clinical hospitals. He was rejected and later his corpse was brought back to the scene. The eyewitnesses took the suspect to Oluyole Police Station, where he was later transferred to the Iyaganku Police Station. That was how Iyaganku patrol vehicle came to the scene, took my elder brother, the deceased, and me to the mortuary in Oke-Ado, Ibadan. We deposited the corpse on Friday night,” he added.

Emmanuel explained that when he got to the police station on Saturday, “the way the Divisional Traffic Officer of Iyaganku was handling the case was just abnormal”.

“I suspect the DTO had a relationship with the killer, because the murder case was not registered with them,” he said.

“That was why they (the police) transferred the case from Oluyole because they knew Iyaganku DTO would act in the favour of the killer family, a clear cooperation between the two police stations and the suspect’s family.”

‘IT IS A BAILABLE OFFENCE’

The Divisional Police Officer of Iyaganku Police Station, Akintunde Oyeniran, was called on the phone on Tuesday, telling FIJ that he was not permitted by the law to discuss such matters with the press and that we should speak with the PPRO instead.

Before then, on Saturday, the DTO of the station had told the Agbo family that “it was a bailable offence”.

“How would you say it’s a bailable offence when our brother is lying in the mortuary dead? An intentional murder that is not accidental,” Emmanuel retorted.

“He killed him on purpose. He was chasing him. It was not an accident. The DTO was like ‘Shebi we too dey drive nah; shey we no dey do mistake?’ It was your brother who stone the suspect. If he no look for trouble, shey dey go kill am?’

“Two policemen were on the ground when he was saying the jargon he was saying, that it’s a bailable offence, that he could be bailed anytime.”

Emmanuel had received a call from the inspector of police officer at the Iyaganku division, inviting him for a consensus that it was “an accident”.

“They were taking the case as a minor case, a case that should have been transferred to the state CID. They did not even go to the scene to carry out any investigation but were just concluding that it was an accident,” Emmanuel said.

He also stated that the DTO, the IPO, and the station officer had acted in a clandestine way to disrupt the legality of the case.

“After some eyewitnesses narrated how intentionally, and not accidentally, my brother was murdered to the DPO, he ordered the police officers not to release him on bail. The DTO, the SO, and the IPO had all whitewashed the case behind the DPO,” he said.

“Then, in the evening, after an interval of 30 minutes, I got a call from the IPO, who told me that they would be taking the matter to the court on Tuesday as an accident case. I told him emphatically that it was a pure murder case. A policeman who was within earshot snapped in, ‘Why would you be treating these people like that? Is it because they don’t have money or they don’t have anybody to support them?”

‘THEY CAME FOR BARGAINING’

FIJ spoke with the state PPRO Adewale Osifeso on the phone on Tuesday, who did confirm the incident and stated categorically that he had told the complainant (Emmanuel) to issue a formal complaint to the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Adebowale Williams, about their grievances on how the Iyaganku police division was handling the case.

“I have told them (the victims) they have every right to walk to the commissioner of police, stating their fears and how they want immediate intervention in the matter. I even volunteered that as soon as they got there they should call me and I would take them to his office,” Osifeso said.

However, Emmanuel told FIJ plans had been made to go to the commissioner’s office on Tuesday but then the family of the suspect had already taken the matter to the court in the early hours of the day and that the same family had come to negotiate with them in the family home (the Agbos), promising that they were going to bear the responsibilities of Agbo’s burial, his wife and his three children.

“We just concluded that what has happened has happened. They came in a crowd, including two pastors, pleading that the case should not proceed. They asked what they should do. And we concluded that they would cater for the burial, cater for his (Agbo’s) three children,” he said.

“That same time the case was taken to court, their family members had come begging and negotiating. I don’t even know the tactic or game plan hidden there.”

Ige is a reporter with FIJ, in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.