Police have been creating fear in residents, specifically in the Abraham Adesanya environs, since lawyer Omobolanle Raheem’s killing in the Ajah area of Lagos on Sunday.
Some police officers were seen patrolling from Lekki to Under Bridge, Ajah, where 41-year-old Raheem was shot dead by Drambi Vandi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police attached to the Ajah division.
For fear of being victimised, most of the residents denied FIJ access to information about the spot of Raheem’s killing, largely because of how closely monitored the environment had been.
FIJ observed in a boarded car about 9:40 am some security agents code-named Operation Mesa (Op-Mesa) driving towards the Ikate area of Lekki.
Getting to Abraham Adesanya about 10:20 am, where the couple, together with their extended families, had gone shopping, this journalist observed some Odogbolu Police Command forces driving inward the residential and commercial area.
FIJ visited the only Domino’s Pizza along the Ajah-Abraham Adesanya axis and asked two workers whether Raheem and her family shopped there on Sunday before heading to Ajah U-turn.
Speaking to the second, the first worker said, “He asked me the same thing.”
“Why were you answering him?” Asked the second.
One of them, who was ostensibly cautious, said, “I only read the headline of the lawyer’s death online.” The other remarked quite dismissively, “God will save all of us.”
A roadside worker, who preferred not to be named, however, decried how indiscriminately the police officers open fire on people in the area.
“The police officers have the character of shooting their citizens. The officer who killed the lawyer should be put to shame in public and also be killed. They can just for no reason come to this area and start shooting into the air like fools. I really feel sorry for the family who lost their loved one with pregnancy to the police,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, has recommended the immediate suspension of Vandi.
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.
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