…Family of building engineer demands justice

By Bose Adelaja

FOR the Edewors, no amount of consolation can bring back their son, Oyoma Edewor, who would have been 33 years old come June 2014.

The family is mourning the death of the building engineer who was felled by bullets on Saturday May 10, 2014, few hours to the introduction ceremony of his younger brother, Moses Edewor (Junior).
The family’s grief is compounded by the fact that the joy of the intending couple has been cut short by the sad development as the introduction ceremony has since been cancelled.

According to Moses, the ceremony was planned to be the first of its kind with friends and relatives, both home and abroad, eagerly looking forward to witness a memorable occasion. But tragically all that is left to witness now is  Oyoma’s body in the morgue, after being cut short at the prime of his life.

The deceased was said to be coming from Mile 2 when the tragedy occurred. The fourth in the family of 13 was slain around 10pm of that fateful day in the presence of his cousin allegedly by a trigger-happy cop attached to Area E Command.

According to eye witnesses account, the deceased and his cousin were ordered out of his private car, a Fore runner jeep, after which they were stripped half-naked by the policeman before firing the shot which pierced his fore arm and landed on the right side of his abdomen, leading to his death.

Oyoma’s 63 years old mother was speechless and was yet to come to terms with the demise of her son when Vanguard Metro paid a visit to the Edewors last Monday. But the deceased’s cousin, Yinka Tijani, gave a blow-by-blow account of his cousin’s killing, saying the trigger-happy cop was already drunk at the time.

According to him, Oyoma, himself and two others were in the Jeep when one of the tyres went flat following a puncture around Mile 2. This entailed the car having to be towed to their Festac abode. Two of the car’s occupants alighted and joined the towing vehicle, leaving the deceased and one other person in the car.

‘’On getting to Durba Junction, the vehicles were flagged down by a team of policemen which carried out a search on us but found nothing incriminating. Also in front of Area E Command, we were flagged down by two armed policemen,’’ he said.

Out of fear, the driver of the towing van ignored the order from the policemen and did not stop; but Oyoma, who was apprehensive at that time, made gestures at the driver to obey the policemen but was ignored.

Yinka said the policemen went in pursuit of the towing van whose driver sped off upon sighting them. However, the duo hijacked a shuttle bus and gave chase; they eventually caught up with them at 3rd Avenue. One of the policemen was said to have jumped out of the bus and pointed his gun at Oyoma and his companions and this caused a hitch in traffic around the area with residents and road users running helter skelter not knowing the next line of action.

Meanwhile, the driver of the towing van again tried to play a fast one on the policemen by driving against traffic. But the van developed break failure at this point, though the driver was able to manage until it got to Agboju where the vehicle’s wind screen was shattered by the policemen. By this time, Yinka and another occupant of the car had jumped out, leaving only the deceased in the car.

Undeterred, the driver continued his journey until he got to Alakija (near a gas station) where the vehicle eventually hit an object and the driver took to his heels; the other occupants were pulled out of the vehicles one after the other, and  stripped half naked by their assailants. Then one of the police men allegedly pulled the trigger of his gun and killed Oyoma.

‘’I called another occupant of the vehicle and got the shock of my life when he told me ‘Oyoma had been shot’. My cousin shouted on top of his voice, ‘help, I am bleeding..’ and I used a piece of cloth to tie his arm. I approached some policemen who mounted a road block at Alakija junction to assist in taking him to the hospital but they went through the motion of calling for emergency and disappeared into thin air. Oyoma later gave up the ghost. The matter was incidented at Area E Command,’’ said Yinka.

When the culprit, identified as Sergeant Godwin Otene, was eventually apprehended, Vanguard Metro, VM, gathered that he pleaded for mercy, saying he was being controlled by an unknown force.
However, the family said they have petitioned both the Inspector General of Police and the Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola on the issue but  there was no response.

Oyoma’s younger brother Moses told VM his family wants justice. ‘’My introduction ceremony would have taken place yesterday, but this is now impossible; all the items bought for the  ceremony have all gone to waste and the family has been thrown into mourning. We want the culprit brought to book. Oyoma was innocent and hard working. How can the Police send him to an early grave and expect us to be quiet over the issue? The IGP must help us, the Governor and the Senate should act fast. Who knows the next victim ? All hands must be on deck for us to get justice,’’ he added.