A witness, Mr. Wasiu Adeniji, has told an Osun State Coroner’s Inquest investigating circumstances surrounding the death of a Police Corporal, Mr Rauf Fawale, that David Olowoporoku, one of the operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) in the state, accused of beating Fawale to death alongside two others, did not deny the act on the night he was arrested.

Olowoporoku and two other secret police agents were alleged to have attacked Fawale on the midnight of January 14, 2021.

Adeniji, the owner of Riverside Lounge & Bar, Osogbo, where the three DSS operatives and Fawale had visited to have fun, said he was informed that Olowoporoku and two of his colleagues beat Fawale to the point that he sustained injury on his head, an incident that later led to his death.

Adeniji at the resumed sitting at the Coroner inquest headed by Chief Magistrate Olusegun Ayilara, said  when the victim was taken to the Osun State University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Olowoporoku was already drunk, adding that the drunk operative did not deny attacking Fawale.

He said a Police officer, Inspector Medinat Badmus, who arrested Olowoporoku at the scene of the incident, informed him and others that Fawale was brutalised by Olowoporoku and two of his colleagues around the bar.

He said: “ At about 2:00a.m., while I was sleeping, I received a call from one Mr. Adisa that something was happening at Riverside. I called my manager and he said one of our customers, Mr. Fawale was attacked about 80 metres away from the bar.

“I went there with my wife. I met Inspector Medinat, Mr. Adisa and Olowoporoku and my manager and two other Okada riders. I entered the emergency room and I met Mr. Fawale on the bed.

“I saw Medinat calling Mr. Femi Adewara on the phone that one of his officers wounded somebody and they had arrested Olowoporoku. Inspector Medinat gave an account of how three DSS officers attacked Fawale and that two of them ram away but she only nabbed Olowoporoku. Olowoporoku was already drunk at that time.

“After much deliberation, they said what do we want? I said that’s left between DSS and Police.

“I noticed that my manager was paying for Fawale’s treatment and I now told them that since Olowoporoku is not denying that something happened, and since it was my manager that was paying, I will ask that my money be paid back to me,  since the incident didn’t happen at the bar.  “That was when Mr. Adewara now put a call to Ibrahim and Mustapha (DSS officers) that they need to reimburse Olowoporoku. I think they reimbursed him because later, they transferred the sum of N30,000 to my manager.”

Another witness, the medical doctor at Osun DSS Command, Olu-Kayode Olumide,  said he treated Olowoporoku of the injuries he sustained on the night of the incident after he was mistaken for a hoodlum.

“I was called that I have an emergency at the clinic. On getting to the clinic, I met my officer, David Olowoporoku at the front of the clinic, with blood stains on the head, I took him to the dressing room. Because of the bloodstains on the head, I had to shave the hair surrounding the wound. I asked him what happened and he said he was at Riverside that previous night and was mistaken to be among some hoodlums that caused a fight at the joint.

“I asked him if they hit him with anything, he said he couldn’t remember. After the treatment, he kept on complaining of headache. After that, I asked that he be taken to the Union Diagnostic Centre, Osogbo for skull x-ray and the x-ray showed that there was no skull fracture. I admitted him at the clinic and later discharged him,” he said.

Further hearing on the matter has been adjourned till tomorrow (Wednesday).