Man narrates how daughter was allegedly killed by police

The father of Monsurat Ojuade, who was allegedly killed by a police sergeant at their residence in Surulere, Lagos, appeared before a magistrate court in Ebute-Metta to recount his daughter’s final moments.

The deceased was reportedly hit by a bullet on September 11 while the police were on a criminal raid investigation.

The deceased’s sister, Tosin, specifically alleged that one of the officers tried to force the gate open from the outside and fired shots into the compound, and the bullet hit the deceased on her two thighs.

Gunshot

At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, Nurudeen Ojuade told the coroner, Bola Folarin-Williams, that he rushed out of their room into the compound when he heard a gunshot and his daughter screamed “daddy, they have shot me,” around 11:35 p.m.

“I had rushed out of the room to find my daughter sprawled on the floor in front of the house in her pool of blood with her two legs shattered by bullets,” the businessman said.

“That I immediately carried her to the nearest hospital though she had bled so much on the floor where she was shot.

“That I had noticed at the point I carried her inside a tricycle that her body had gone limp.”

Mr Ojuade said he took her to a hospital but she was rejected because she had “become unresponsive at this time.”

He said they went to Randle hospital but again she was rejected because the doctors were on strike.

“It was at the hospital that they finally pronounced her medically/clinically dead after a doctor inspected her inside the tricycle and not inside the hospital as she was also refused admission in the hospital,” he said.

Invite

Mr Ojuade said his family was invited by the commissioner of police to the police headquarters in Ikeja for the orderly room trial of the alleged killer of their daughter.

“That at the said orderly room trial, we saw six persons standing as defendants/suspects and we were asked by the police to narrate what happened on the night of Friday, 10th September 2021, at No. 53, Mogaji Street, Ijesha-Tedo, Surulere, Lagos, which we did,” he said.

“That till date, no one had shown us the report of that orderly room trial which we went to testify at nor had the police made known the true identity of the alleged killer of Monsurat Ojuade.”

Concerns

Mr Ojuade frowned at the stray bullet narrative given by the police.

He said his daughter’s death was not a case of a stray bullet but was a premeditated murder, adding that the police have failed to address their concerns.

He said the alleged killer of his daughter “was almost fully hooded with a face cap and face mask,” at his arraignment.

“That till date, no one has any details whatsoever at to whom the said Sergeant Samuel Philips is and his details as a police officer a situation which has begun to cast doubts on our mind as a family,” Mr Ojuade said.

He said he wrote to the Lagos State commissioner of police and copied the deputy commissioner of police, state CID, Panti, Yaba, demanding that they change the “police stray bullet” narrative and “reflect the true account of what transpired on that fateful night of 10th September 2021” and to reveal the “true and full” identity of the alleged murderer.

He said they were yet to get any response from the police commissioner.

Autopsy

He said that they were invited again by the police on September, 20, to attend the autopsy session of the deceased at the office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja, and they obliged.

He said they were yet to get the autopsy report of their daughter’s death.

The coroner adjourned the matter to January 21 and 28.