A policeman has accidentally killed his female colleague during sporadic shooting to restore normalcy in Asaba, Delta State capital after a protest broke out on Saturday, September 28.
The female officer who was reportedly part of a four-man team deployed to restore order after a protest broke out during the demolition of illegal structures at the Bonsaac area of Asaba by the officials of state Ministry of Environment, was hit by a stray bullet.
The officer was hit by an accidental discharge after her colleagues shot sporadically as market women who tried to resist the demolition exercise. The suspected killer cop was detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department after his colleague was confirmed dead at the Federal Medical Centre in Asaba.
According to an eyewitness, “The chairman of landlords in Bonsaac, Mr Bidi, has been molesting market women for a very long time and wanted to forcefully evict them from a plot of land they rented, where they had set up caravans and paid the owner of the land about N2000 per month as rent for each container space”.
“The landlord on Friday, September 26, 2019 brought a bulldozer and connived with the Divisional Police Officer, (DPO) in-charge of “B” Division Asaba, who deployed about 4 police officers to the premises to supervise the pulling down of the caravans belonging to the hapless women.
“Having pulled down the source of their daily bread, which was neither obstructing vehicular nor water flow, the women demanded that the caravan at the landlord’s premises be pulled down too because he had earlier informed them that the demolition was authorised by the Delta State Ministry of Environment” the eyewitness added.
Confirming the incident on Monday September 30, the state Commissioner of Police Adeyinka Adeleke added that investigation is ongoing.
He said, “The matter is at the state Criminal Investigation Department, Asaba, so we are waiting for the report of the incident”.
