There was pandemonium yesterday at Ipokia, headquarters of Ipokia local government area of Ogun State, as youths took to the street, to protest against the death of a young man, Salia Gboge, popularly known as Alapa, who they alleged was beaten to death by policemen on Tuesday.

It was gathered from people who were at the scene of the incident that Salia died after being beaten by the police with the butt of their guns. As a result, irate youths barricaded the main road in Ipokia, accusing the police of extrajudicial killing.

When contacted, spokesperson of the Ogun State police command, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, denied that the police beat the deceased. He said: “The police were on stop-and-search duty when they saw the deceased person (Salia) who had been arrested earlier in April for an offence. He was charged to court and the court ordered that he should be detained at the police custody till his next hearing date, but he escaped.

“When the police sighted him, they tried to apprehend him to the station. On getting to the station, he refused to go into the station and started an altercation with the police; and in the process, he slumped.

“He was taken to hospital. Nobody beat him. If anybody said the police beat him, that person is a liar. He was taken to the hospital after he slumped and there, he gave up the ghost.”Oyeyemi added that the body has been deposited in the mortuary for an autopsy to know the cause of his death.