They have rendered me useless –Victim’s husband
Daniel Anokwuru
When Yusuf Owoodun and his wife, Busayo woke up in the morning of Saturday, August 10, 2019, they were filled with joy, waiting to celebrate the Eid-El-Kabir. They had no inkling that tragedy lurked around.
The expectation of the Owoodun family to have a happy Eid the next day was cut short abruptly, when policemen from the Anti Kidnapping Unit attached to Area M Command, Idimu, Lagos tracked some crime suspects to Ijegun bus-stop but came under attack by members of the gang. Members of the community identified the suspects as Internet fraud suspects popularly called ’Yahoo Boys’, but the police said they were kidnappers. In the midst of the commotion, a stray bullet hit the pregnant mother of three, Busayo, right in front of the family residence at No. 5, Idiaro compound, Ijegun. The pain her death created in the family will not be forgotten in a hurry, because the 35-year-old was the only child of her parents.
When The Nigerian Xpress visited the home of the deceased days after the tragic incident, the pain of the sudden loss was still fresh. The one-room apartment she lived in with her husband was filled with sympathizers. Her husband, who is still in shock, told the reporter that he had been rendered useless. He said his wife was outside cutting customers’ cloths to be sewed for the Eid festival, while he was inside sewing when she was hit by the stray bullet. According to him, when he heard the sound of the gunshot, he rushed out to call his children to hurry inside the house, only to behold his wife lying down on the floor.
According to him, he could not understand what was wrong with her immediately, until people came to assist. He said that was when he noticed that the expectant mother had been shot dead. The 39-year-old bereaved husband insisted that it was police officers who were chasing ’Yahoo boys’ that killed his wife. He said youths in the community pursued the policemen involved, caught them and handed them over to the police area commander on his arrival at the scene.
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He recounted the incident: “That day, I was inside sewing clothes, while my wife was outside cutting the cloths. We’re both tailors. As she was cutting the cloths, we heard a gunshot outside. We noticed that it was police officers pursuing ’Yahoo boys’. The bullet hit her in front of our house. The officers pursued the yahoo boys from Ijegun roundabout to our area. People gathered to help us, but she died as we were on our way to the hospital. She was confirmed dead at Better Life Hospital at Ijegun bus stop.
The Area Commander, Area M, later visited us. That day, I was devastated. My wife was pregnant when she died. My wife was from Oyo State. We got married in 2006. We are a Muslim family and had prepared for the Eid celebration before the incident. How will I continue? Both of us were managing our tailoring business together, taking care of our children and other dependants. My wife was the one taking care of her aged mother.”
Also speaking, a relation of the deceased, Kemi Adeniyi, added that the family had been left in utter confusion and pain, as they did not know what to do. She said, “We don’t know what to do. We are calling on the police to investigate the matter very well. We are pleading with Nigerians to come to our aid. All these police officers, they have been killing a lot, let this one be the last.
They have destroyed our family we don’t know where to start. I cannot call the deceased a girl, she was 35 years old. She was the only child of her parents. Now her mother is in menopause, she cannot give birth again. So, you can see that the family has been ruined. The police officer that killed her said they were SARS officers, we don’t even know. They were just shouting SARS, none of them identified their true identity. They ran away, but people from this community pursued them and caught all of them, they were five in number.”
Alfa Opeyemi, a close friend of the deceased’s husband said he was around when the incident happened. He said he came in, not up to two minutes, when they heard gunshot outside. He said, “The policemen were after ’Yahoo boys’. They were running after the ’Yahoo boys’ from the junction. Maybe, as they were not able to catch them they now released the bullet in the midst of people.
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I now ran inside and told my friend to bend down, that they were shooting outside. The woman was outside cutting cloths. The next thing, when we came out, we saw her on the floor, she raised her head and closed her eyes. We thought she had fainted because of the sound of the gunshot. When we now checked her, we saw blood coming out. We tried to rush her to the hospital, but she died on the way to the hospital.”
The reporter also visited the residence of the deceased’s mother, Mrs Abosede Afolake at No. 8, Aina Street, Ijegun. She was seen crying profusely while holding her bible. She was still traumatized, lamenting that her life had ended. She asked the reporter repeatedly, where she would start in life. Sympathizers were all around her, consoling her. She managed to say, “I don’t know where to start or what to do. The government should come to my aid. The police must produce whoever killed my only child with her baby in the womb. I want justice. She left three children behind. Where will her husband start.”
In a statement released by the Police Public Relations Officer, for Lagos State Command, DSP Bala Elkana, he stated that an assistant superintendent of police and two other police officers were injured when they attempted to arrest the hideout of the crime suspects, he described as kidnappers. Elkana said the commissioner of police had ordered an investigation and condoled with the family of the victim killed by the stray bullet. The statement noted that the gang and some notorious cultists in the area attacked the police team and injured ASP Victor Ugbedun and two others who are currently in a critical condition in the hospital.
“The Command has launched a manhunt for the assailants with a view of bringing them to justice. The corpse of the victim of the stray bullet was taken to the hospital for autopsy. The commissioner of Police has ordered an independent investigation into the case, the Command calls for calm and assured the family and friends that justice will prevail,” the statement added.