By Emma Nnadozie, Crime Editor
LAGOS—THE only survivor in last Monday’s killing of a Divisional Police Officer, DPO; Divisional Crime Officer, DCO, and other policemen at Badagry, Lagos by some soldiers from Ibereko Military Cantonment; Assistant Superintendent of Police, Afolabi Taofeek, has died at the Ikeja General Hospital where he was placed in the Intensive Care Unit, ICU.

ASP Afolabi who spoke exclusively with Vanguard on his hospital bed few hours before his death gave detailed account of how his fellow officers were executed by the soldiers over the killing of a soldier last Sunday by some Policemen at a checkpoint near Seme border.

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This officer who survived soldiers' attack and told Vanguard the story, Wednesday, died yesterday.

While the police officer was straining to give details of how the incident happened, he was surrounded by doctors who were busy injecting him with different medications. His parting words to Vanguard reporter after his narration was that he was happy that God saved his life to enable him to narrate how the ugly incident happened.

Death from bullet shots

The 44 year-old father of two was said to have given up the ghost around 12 midnight, Wednesday, after doctors battled to save him from the bullet shots that pierced his rear ribs, penetrated his lungs and lodged at the chest cavity.

Sources at the General Hospital told Vanguard that the wounded police officer was responding to treatment until around 10.30p.m, Wednesday, when he started complaining of restlessness.

One of the sources said he complained that he could not understand how his body was functioning, adding: “He said he was no longer himself, that he could not understand how his body was functioning. We advised him to pray but he said he was finding it difficult to pray.

Few minutes later, he complained that his throat was dry and we offered to moisten his mouth with cotton wool soaked with little water as he was not supposed to drink water at that stage.

“In fact, after we moistened his mouth with the cotton wool, he felt relieved, thanked us profusely and prayed for us. Then, around 11.30p.m, his condition deteriorated. You know the bullet passed through delicate organs of his body before lodging inside the chest cavity and we did our best to save his life. Unfortunately, he died.”

His elder brother, Babatunde Odusiji, a civil servant who disclosed that they hail from Alare village, Ikpokia L.G.A of Ogun State spoke with Vanguard lamenting that he could not survive the ordeal. He said: “We thought he will survive. He was really in serious pains but after the first surgery, we thought that the danger was over.

He was looking fair when I left him with our younger brother and went to our home at Sango. I was shocked midnight, when I received a call that he was dead. His wife is inconsolable. All I will say is that the Almighty God knows why he did not survive. We will really miss him. He was a brother in a million,” he said tearfully.

When news of the death of the Assistant Superintendent of Police filtered into police formations in Lagos State, cries of anguish pervaded the air. Officers and the rank and file of the force were seen clustering around with hands folded, lamenting the fate of their colleagues. Female members of the force were seen weeping openly.

When contacted for comments on the development, Lagos State Police spokesman, Samuel Jinadu, simply said it was true and left for a meeting at the headquarters in Ikeja.

Meantime, the General Officer Commanding, GOC, 81 Division of the Nigerian Army, Major-General Kenneth Minimah, will be visiting Badagry today to have an on-the-spot-assessment of the incident that snowballed into the killing of the DPO, his DCO and several police officers.

Though details of the visit were not known the Division’s spokesperson, Lt. Colonel Kayode Ogunsanya, told Vanguard on telephone, that the GOC and other officers will visit the 242 Recce Battalion and scenes of the clash.

In a reaction, the Army spokesman denied that the Commandant, Colonel Abubakar Nabasa, was arrested yesterday. He said the commandant addressed his troops at the Badagry military command, yesterday.

He challenged the statement given by the survivor of the attack saying he could not have been able to say anything since he was comatose. But Vanguard stands by its story since we have the survivor who gave up the ghost, yesterday, on tape.