Mob kills FSARS officer who shot LASTMA personnel

• Lagos CP orders posthumous trial, dismissal
• Suspected ritualists behead 12-year-old girl in Delta

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, yesterday ordered the posthumous trial and dismissal of an operative of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), Inspector Olukunle Olonade.

Olonade, who was in mufti, had allegedly shot dead an official of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Rotimi Adeyemi, at the Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos State on Wednesday evening.

The LASTMA official had confronted the policeman, who had contravened the state traffic law.
In the ensuing altercation, eyewitnesses said the policeman entered his car and brought out a gun with which he killed the victim.

The police spokesperson, CSP Chike Oti, said residents who witnessed the incident, thought Olonade was an armed robber and mobbed him. He noted that although the inspector was rescued by a police team who arrived the scene, he died on the way to a hospital.

He said: “On November 28, at about 6:00p.m. the driver of a Toyota Highlander SUV, with registration number LSR 277 BJ, later identified as Inspector Olukunle Olonade, attached to FSARS Ikeja, while driving along Iyana-Ipaja Road, was contravened for driving against traffic by a LASTMA official, one Rotimi Adeyemi, aged 46, at Iyana-Ipaja Roundabout.

“The two men vehemently disagreed with each other. However, during the altercation, the said Inspector Olukunle Olonade allegedly shot the LASTMA officer to death. Consequently, an irate mob, who thought the shooter was an armed hoodlum because he was in mufti, descended on him and beat him to stupor.

“Although he was later rescued by teams of policemen drafted to the scene, he later gave up the ghost while being rushed to a hospital for treatment. The serial number of the pistol recovered at the scene was checked in the system and it revealed the bearer as Inspector Olukunle Olonade attached to FSARS Ikeja.

“Bodies of the deceased have been evacuated to the morgue for autopsy. The CP Lagos has directed that the late Inspector Olakunle Olonade be tried posthumously in orderly room and be recommended for dismissal from the force.”

Meanwhile, ritual killers struck again in Oghara, Ethiope West local government area of Delta State yesterday, killing a 12-year-old simply identified as Eguono.

It was gathered that Eguono, whose killers severed her head from body and her vital parts harvested away, was killed around Okwemeva Junction, off Scot Road, an area that had witnessed a number of ritual murders in the last few weeks.

The area is a part Oghara, which is country home of former Delta governor, Chief James Ibori and host community to Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH) and the Delta State Polytechnics, Otefe.

Recent incessant ritual killings in the community have raised the panic level as most of those reached for comments declined for fear of the unexplained.

When contacted, the Delta State Commissioner of Police, CP Muhammad Mustafa, said: “The DPO actually called me, but they said the girl was not mentally okay. The DPO has commenced investigation to unravel the true story as to why the girl was beheaded.”