In a violent robbery, the hoodlums shot the guard identified as Kayode after he responded to a distress call of a couple abducted by the robbers in their Land Cruiser sports utility vehicle. A member of the Oodua People’s Congress, Kayode was one of several local residents who rushed to the scene once the alarm was raised.
Apparently, the couple, Oluwakunmi Ayodeji, an engineer and his pregnant wife, Oyin, were returning from a maternity centre behind the police station when they were attacked by the gang. Policemen at the Ibafo division, who were unprepared for the attack when it happened, were said to have hurriedly shut the gate to the station and shunned calls for help.
Upon snatching the car, the robbers, after getting to the Lotto end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, shot Oluwakunmi in the eye and abandoned him and his wife on the road. A family friend of the couple, Bisola Olojede, who said she had taken the couple to the maternity centre where Oyin had a scan and they were leaving the centre for a hospital in Ikeja when the robbers struck, added that she escaped by a whisker.
She explained that she ran after the vehicle and started calling for help, adding that some residents, including Kayode, joined her in chasing the vehicle. When the robbers got to the front of the Ibafo Police Station, they were said to have stopped and fired into the crowd of pursuers.
Ms Olojede said: “A bullet hit one of us and the man died immediately and the police heard the gunshot and rushed out. I started begging them to help us, saying there was a pregnant woman in critical condition in the vehicle, there were two of them, a man and a woman but they shunned me.
“I called my husband on the telephone and told him what happened. He said I should call the police and I told him I was with them but they were not doing anything and when the police heard that, they quickly shut their gate.”
According to eyewitnesses, despite witnessing the killing, the Ibafo Police Division did not send signals to surrounding stations. Muyiwa Adejobi, a spokesman for the Ogun State Police Command, confirmed the death of the victim but denied that the police fled and shut its gate against the residents.
“We have confirmation that somebody was shot dead around the police station and the police heard a woman calling for help and she was attended to. Nobody shut any gate it is not possible.
"The couple, who were abducted, were rescued in the Redemption Camp area and they have regained their freedom. They are being treated in a clinic,” he added.
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