Police officers in Ondo State have allegedly killed Aderonke
Eze, a widow who owns a “mini bear parlor joint” close to her residence in
Akure. Mrs. Eze, who lived at No. 1, Akinyemi Street, off Ijoka road, Sijuwade
close in Akure, was slain with a gun butt by police officers from the Ala unit
of the Oda Divisional Police Station of the Ondo State Command.
The late widow was killed on Sunday evening by the officers.
After her death, the policemen dumped the remains of the deceased widow, who
left behind three little children, at the general hospital’s morgue in Akure.
It was learnt that the killer police officers, seven in
number, stormed the streets around 6: 45 PM on Sunday in a Hilux van with a
register plate number NPF 4236 B from the Oda Divisional Station. Witnesses
told SaharaReporters that the policemen were carrying out an illegal house
check with an aggressive search of all residential apartments on the street. A
sergeant simply identified as “Officer Fabunmi” led the policemen.
Several residents said the policemen are in the habit of
raiding the street and making arrests of young boys suspected to be smoking
marijuana, or “Indian hemp.” The raid was to identify their specific houses in
the neighborhood.
A close neighbor and eyewitness, Ibrahim Adegunle, said on
Monday that the rampaging officers, upon invading the three-bedroom flat of
Mrs. Eze, ordered the occupants out of the passage of the building. Mr.
Adegunle, an electrician, said the mission of the policemen could not be
immediately ascertained as they quickly embarked on a “house check” without any
warrant.
"Even the woman was not at that home when they (the
policemen) stormed the building. She went for a ceremony in the second street
but fortunately, she arrived and met us arguing with the policemen. Mrs. Eze
was not around at the beginning of the raid but arrived while her neighbors
were arguing with the police.
"During the process of the argument, she demanded to know
what exactly was going on and she was told that some people in the street are
selling contraband items, mostly marijuana, to the youths in the street," Mr.
Adegunle said. He said that Mrs. Eze contested that since she doesn’t engage in
any contraband business but merely owns a mini-bear parlor, she should not be
subjected to the search, but an impatient police officer shouted on her and hit
her in the head.
"The woman made several [moves in] resistance but she was
again beaten and wounded with [the] gun butt while she fell on the floor of the
passage, lying unconscious, and stopped breathing,” Mr Adegunle continued. “The
officers immediately fled the street in their van and refused to make any arrest,
sensing they [had] killed the woman."
Following the sad incident the residents and sympathizers in
the community on Monday took to the streets of the neighborhood of
“Sijuwade Quarters” and protested the killings of the 50-year-old woman.
Another resident who asked to remain anonymous said during
the protest that illegal arrests were carried out by the policemen in the
evening of every weekend.
"They will just enter the street and start arresting our
young boys,” the resident said. “Many of them would be [accused] of being in
possession of Indian hemp. Before you know it, they would be asking us to pay
N10,000 before we could bail them. This is not the first nor second time, but I
do hope it would be their last time because the whole world must here this sad
news," a furious resident said.
Meanwhile, Ondo State police are claiming the late woman was
harboring young men who deal and smoke marijuana. Police spokesperson Oluwole
Ogodo told SaharaReporters during a phone call that the officers “didn’t
killed the woman” but were trying to carry out the arrest of a notorious
marijuana dealer on the street.
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