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Motorcycle drivers on Thursday shut down the Ijegun Road in the Alimosho area of Lagos State, after a woman, Idongesit Ekpo, and her husband, Godwin, were shot by a team of policemen attached to the Isheri Osun Police Division. While Idongesit died on the spot, Godwin was said to be in a critical condition at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, where he was taken for treatment.

It was learnt that the couple was returning from a church programme on Wednesday in a tricycle belonging to the family. Eye witness said Godwin met a police checkpoint at Obalagbe bus stop, where some other tricycle drivers were being reportedly extorted by an eight-man police team. He was said to have been flagged down by one of the policemen, but as he sped past, one of the officers shattered his windscreen with a baton. A police corporal, identified as Aremu Musesiu, was said to have opened fire on the tricycle.

It was learnt that the bullet pierced through the tricycle back side and hit Idongesit, who was breastfeeding a three-month-old baby. Her husband, Godwin, who looked back when the shot was fired, was said to have also been hit in the neck.

The policemen were said to have hurriedly taken money from the tricycle drivers they had earlier detained, before fleeing the scene. Tricycle drivers in the community trooped out on Thursday to protest the death and demanded justice for the victims. The protesters held placards, some of which read, ‘Isheri Police, your generation will suffer,’ ‘Stop killing us,’ among others.

The protest train went to the Isheri Osun Police Station, where they met a team of armed policemen in more than six vans. An Armoured Personnel Carrier was also mounted on the road to the station. The Financial Secretary of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Lagos State branch, Chinanzor Ifechiga, was brutalised and her telephone seized by the Divisional Police Officer.

Ifechiga, who was accused of filming the protest and taking pictures, was manhandled by eight policemen, who struggled to take the phone from her on the order of the DPO. The protesters left the station for Ijegun Road, where they ordered other tricycle operators to cease work. Six police vans packed full with policemen from Idimu, Igando, Ikotun, Gowon Estate and Isheri Osun divisions, were seen on the road.

A tricycle driver, Henry Chibuzor, said the couple was shot at around 10pm on Wednesday. He said, “I was going home around 10pm when I saw the eight-man team asking me to stop at a checkpoint. I was there with four other tricycle drivers. The man was coming from church with his family. As he got to the junction, he swerved and his tricycle mistakenly brushed their patrol van.

 “A policeman hit the tricycle’s windscreen with a baton and damaged it. The second policeman fired a bullet which hit the woman in the neck, came out from the other side, and hit her husband too.” He said the policemen collected N5,000 from him and also extorted money from other tricycle drivers. Another witness, Kabiru Olaoye, said the residents quickly formed a crowd at the scene and prevented the policemen from leaving. He added that the cops called for reinforcement, adding that officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad and policemen from surrounding divisions arrived at the scene and rescued the killer-cops.