Trigger happy cop kills two in Bayelsa

By Samuel Oyadongha
Tragedy struck, Wednesday, at Elebele in the outskirts of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, when a trigger happy Policeman shot dead two persons, an Okada rider and his passenger, for allegedly refusing to part with gratification at a chekpoint.

Though the name of the deceased Okada rider, said to be an indigene of Elebele, could not be immediately ascertained as at press time, that of the deceased passenger, in his forties, an indigene of Ewoi in Ogbia Local Government Area of the state, was given as Stanley Obele.

The tragic incident, Vanguard, learnt, occurred at about 1.30pm at a police checkpoint in Elebele area, some distance away from the DAAR Communications premises.

However, the trigger happy cop, it was learnt had been arrested and is currently cooling his heels at the State CID.

The deceased Obele, it was learnt, was on his way to Yenagoa, the state capital to collect N20,000 from his brother working with the United Bank for Africa, UBA, when the tragic incident occurred.

It was gathered that as the Okada rider approached the police checkpoint he was stopped by a policeman who allegedly demanded gratification from him which he (Okada rider) rebuffed and sped off.

Angered by the impudence of the Okada rider, the cop was said to have fired ostensibly to scare the former to stop him.

This, however, turned out to be a fatal mistake as the Okada rider and his passenger were reportedly hit.

The Okada rider and his passenger were said to have died on the spot before any help could be rendered by sympathizers.

When Vanguard visited the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa where the remains of the deceased persons were deposited, the family members of the late Obele were seen at outside the morgue discussing the sad incident.

Lamenting the tragic loss, a relation of the deceased Stanley Obele working with the UBA told Vanguard that he was about to notify his brother not to go the Swali branch of the bank where he was before his recent transfer but to come to the Amarata branch for the N20,000 which their uncle directed him to pass to him (deceased Obele) when he got the sad information that he has been killed at a police checkpoint.

The relation who was holding the money neatly tucked in a white envelop could not say much as he was shocked by the tragic shooting.