One of the protesters at the Ijebu Ode, Ogun State leg of the June 12 protests narrowly escaped death after getting hit on the head by a stray bullet fired by policemen from the Igbeba Police Station, FIJ can report.

Some other protesters also broke their arms while trying to avoid being arrested by the policemen, who disrupted their protest as early as 10 am on Saturday.

While speaking with FIJ, Ahmed Olasunkanmi, the President of Ijebu Youth Movement, who led the protest, said one of his ‘comrades’ was arrested and later freed on Sunday after they paid N20,000 as ‘bail’.

“We were just starting the protest at Lagos Garage in Ijebu Ode when the protest was disrupted,” he began. “Immediately the policemen sighted us, they began to shoot at us.

“There was nothing harmful on us apart from our cardboards bearing the message of our protest. One of us was shaved on the head by a stray bullet and another person was taken to their station. We have pictorial and video evidence of their bullet casings.”

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Although the victim of the gunshot swas recovering from the injury well, he said he was unwilling to talk about his horrible experience.

FIJ learnt that the arrested protester was released at about 9 am on Sunday after some Students’ Union members of Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED) rallied to pay the Police N20,000.

The officers are yet to release their ex-detainee’s phone up to date.

Sekoni Doga, the Divisional Police Officer of the Igbeba Police Station, however, denied allegations that the police officers fired any shot to disrupt the protest.

“Somebody called the attention of the Police to the roadblock set by some hooligans,” he said.

“So, I sent policemen to the place and they even had to take away the wood on the road, according to the report I got but no shot was fired at the protesters and no one was arrested.”

When he was told that one of the protesters was hit by a stray bullet, he insisted that he “was not aware of it”.

“When they sighted the police and started running, there was no need to run after them. That was all that happened,” he insisted.

Meanwhile, a source had initially told FIJ that when the community youths informed the police head about their proposed protest in commemoration of the nation’s Democracy Day, he advised them against it.