A Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere was yesterday informed of how a dismissed policeman, Corporal Pepple Boma, allegedly killed a resident at the Makoko waterfront on the Lagos mainland.
The deceased was shot in the stomach, prosecution witness, Mr Steven Aji, said at the ongoing trial.
Aji said that before the incident occurred, residents of the waterfront had received a notice 24 hours earlier from the Lagos State government to leave the settlement.
Aji, who is the Baale (Community Head) of the Makoko waterfront settlement, was led in evidence by the Lagos State prosecuting counsellor, Mr Hafeez Owokoniran.
The witness told the court that after they received the notice, he and his chiefs went to see their lawyer, who advised them not to fight with the Lagos State government officials and should instead plead for
more time to enable them find another settlement.
He narrated to Justice Module Nicole-Clay that the officials and policemen, immediately after serving them the notice, started destroying their houses.
He added that their children fell into the lagoon and when the residents made efforts to rescue them, the policemen began beating them with horsewhips.
Aji said, “They came with electric saw blades and were cutting down the plank houses on the lagoon, and our belongings and little children fell into the lagoon. As we ran to rescue our children, they beat us with horsewhips.
“While that was going on, people were calling me. When I got there, I saw eight policemen, who were shooting sporadically and were also using horsewhips to beat the people that were trying to rescue the children,” he said.
The witness also said that he saw four policemen each on both sides of the lagoon with flying boats, and he then told his chiefs and subjects not to fight with the government officials.
Aji, who was the second prosecution witness, also told the court that while he and his chiefs were making efforts to pacify the officials to give them more time to leave the waterfront, he saw the defendant shoot the deceased, Timothy Hunpoyanwa, in the stomach.
“The man who was shot started shouting, ‘Baale my stomach, my stomach.’ Then I saw him in the pool of his blood in the canoe. The three other policemen who were with the defendant started blaming him, saying they had warned him to stop shooting.
“My subjects wanted to start fighting the government officials and policemen, but I told them not to. I asked the policemen to transfer the deceased into their canoe since they had succeeded in shooting and killing him. We transferred him into their boat and then went to the hospital,” Aji said.
The witness, who said that the late Hunpoyanwa was his second-in-command, told Justice Nicole-Clay that before they got to the Gbagada General Hospital, some of his subjects and policemen were already there and the doctor confirmed that Hunpoyanwa was dead on arrival.
He added that he thereafter took the corpse to the Lagos State Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, and from there went to a police station in Ikeja to make a statement. He couldn’t remember the exact police station.
During cross-examination by the defendant’s counsel, Mr Olowude Bashua, the witness told the court that the residents had been living at the Makoko waterfront settlement for decades and 24 hours would not be enough for them to pack out of there.
The witness said that the government officials and policemen destroyed 20 houses during their operation but could no longer continue with it after they killed the deceased.
Aji said, “They started demolishing the houses in the evening and when night caught up with them, they went back and came back the next day. It was on the next day that the defendant killed the deceased and after that, they stopped coming.
“It was only God that saved us because I observed when we were transferring the corpse into their boat that the defendant was already drunk,” he said.
According to him, if the defendant had not shot and killed one of his chiefs, the policemen and government officials would have been able to demolish the shanties without any loss of life.
Earlier, the deceased’s brother, Francis Hunpoyanwa, who was the first prosecution witness, told the court that he was at home when he heard that his elder brother had been shot.
He said, “I was not there when he was shot, I was at home busy removing the roof of our house. It’s only the Baale who can tell the court how he was shot.”
The Lagos State government had sometime in 2013 arraigned Boma allegedly for unlawfully killing Timothy Hunpoyanwa by shooting him with a gun on July 21, 2013 at about 1.20pm at Makoko, Yaba, in Lagos.
The case was adjourned till February 26, 2020 for continuation of trial.
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