When young Paul Durowaiye set out of his village, Ayede Ibunu, to Kabba, Kogi State, to eke out a living. He never had any harbinger of the violent death that later befell him in the town.
Daily Trust gathered that the late Durowaiye moved to Kabba in search of a means of livelihood due to his aged parents’ inability to fund his tertiary education. But after several futile efforts, he settled for commercial motorcycling popularly known as ‘okada,’ to fend for himself.
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But recently, Durowaiye lost his life in a questionable circumstance without fulfilling his ambition.
A trigger-happy policeman, Daily Trust gathered, snuffed life out of him over a sachet of pure water.
For the late Durowaiye, that fateful day was like any other good day of business success and joy but which turned to a day of sorrow and anguish for his family.
Our correspondent gathered that the young Durowaiye was full of life on that fateful Saturday morning as he was earlier seen at his usual spot at Odo-Affin, a street in Kabba, along the route to his ancestral home, Ayede Ibunu.
His death circumstance can be likened to a tale from Arabian Nights, but it was real.
An eyewitness told our correspondent that after taking a few trips to convey his passengers to their respective destinations on that Saturday morning, he retired to a nearby kiosk which is a few metres from the okada garage to relax. The circumstance that led to his demise unfolded like a drama as soon as he came out of the kiosk.
He was said to have dropped a sachet of pure water on the police patrol van parked in the area, an act that angered one of the policemen. When ordered to remove it, he reportedly hesitated to obey.
Enraged, one of the policemen allegedly pushed away the sachet of pure water which burst in the process and the contents splashed on the ground.
In reprisal, he reportedly went and picked another sachet of pure water as a replacement for his that got burst. In the process, the bag of pure water fell down from the vehicle and the contents were wasted away on the ground.
And that was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Piqued by the development, the police patrol team, said to be five in number descended on him. They beat him black and blue.
The eyewitness also disclosed that when he wrestled himself out of their grip, he allegedly picked a pestle and smashed the windscreen of the van.
Thereafter, he hit one of the policemen in the head with the same pestle and lost his balance.
In the melee, one of the policemen in the van allegedly rushed out and shot him in the abdomen. He died immediately.
The news of the tragedy spread like wildfire to the town. Pronto, his colleagues and other concerned groups rushed to the scene, chanting war songs and slogans. They registered their grievances at the police station with his lifeless body.
But the police authority would not allow that as they considered the move as an affront. They called for reinforcement to quell the rampaging youths. Amid the confusion, irate youths set the old police barracks at Odi-Olowo Quarters in Kabba as well as some cars and motorcycles in the premises on fire.
The Kogi State Police Command said the authorities had commenced investigations into the incident.
The Police Public Relation (PPRO), William Aya, said the officers involved in the incident had been arrested and brought to the police headquarters, Lokoja, for interrogation.
On the insinuations that the deceased was mentally deranged, Aya also said the command had stepped up efforts to establish the whole truth of the matter.
Daily Trust Saturday gathered that the news of the poor mental state of the deceased had been rocking the town. But his colleagues have debunked the claim, saying that it is a figment of imagination.
“Don’t mind them, Duro was very sound mentally. He was an easy-going person. They came up with such a story to cover up their bad deeds.
“Policemen are trained on how best to handle and disarm violent persons. Why apply maximum force over a simple issue?”, a colleague of Durowaiye who spoke on condition of anonymity said.
Our correspondent also gathered that there was an indication that the deceased and one of the policemen knew themselves deeply and might be having an axe to grind over an undisclosed issue.
An account emphatically said that the deceased and the policemen were always guests at the kiosk where the former was said to have gone to relax before the altercation that led to his killing.
That account has therefore given credence to the belief that the deceased and some of the policemen actually knew themselves.
It was gathered that the incident elicited wide protests in the town and forced business activities to a standstill.
Governor Yahaya Bello has ordered an immediate investigation into the incident and subsequent destruction of the police barracks.
The Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr Onogwu Muhammed, who made this known in a statement, urged the youths of the community to remain calm.
“The governor has also called on the youths in Kabba to remain calm and ordered investigation into the matter for necessary action,” he said.
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