The police in Ogun State and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have clashed over the shooting of a 200-level student of the Federal University of Agriculture (FUNAAB), Abeokuta.
Bakare Samuel, a 25-year-old student of animal production and health at FUNAAB was shot last week around Isolu-cele junction near the university.
The students’ leaders in the state said that Samuel was shot alongside a commercial motorcycle rider by police officers attached to Harmony Police Station, Alabata.
In a statement signed by the NANS/Ogun JCC Chairman, Damilola Simeon; Deputy Senate President, Ekundina Segun Elvis, and spokesman, Olufemi Owoeye, the students accused the police of attempted murder of Samuel.
They also accused the police of a cover up and threatened a showdown against the command.
The statement reads in part: “In their usual power-drunken and overbearing manner and hiding under the darkness of the night, both Samuel and the bike man were shot severally by men of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) with no questions asked.
“This incident, which is tantamount to a murder attempt, was carried out by men who are supposed to keep murderers away from us.”
However, the command in a statement by its spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, denied the allegation, saying the shooters were unknown.
Oyeyemi said contrary to the allegation of a cover up of the incident by the police, the police had responded to a distress call on the shooting of the victim, rescued and took him to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Idi-Aba, Abeokuta.
The police statement reads in part: “Findings from the hospital indicated that pellets associated with fabricated guns (locally made guns) were extracted from the body of the victim in the course of treatment. Those could not have come from police assault rifles or pistols.
“The assertion in this press release that those two persons were shot severally could not be substantiated as the imaginary second person has not been produced, and indeed is not receiving treatment anywhere known to the police.
“The police have visited the recuperating victim, Bakare Samuel, several times at the hospital to monitor his progress, and he has always expressed gratitude to the police for saving his life.”
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