Osogbo boils as police kill youth

Irate residents attempted to raze the  Oke Baale Police Station in Osogbo on Sunday following the killing of a youth in the area by a team of policemen from the station.

The residents gave different accounts of what led to the shooting of the victim, known as Emir.

While some said the policemen chased some internet fraudsters to a playing ground in the area when an altercation between the Police and the youths playing football eventually led to the shooting to death of Emir, others told our correspondent, who visited the area, that a group of thugs led by the victim allegedly attacked some persons on Saturday night and the case was reported at the police station.

The victim, according to one Saheed, a resident, was known for violence and some of h

is alleged atrocities had earlier been reported to the Police.

Saheed said “Emir was an area boy and had been reported to the Police on many occasions. I heard that he led some of his boys to attack some people on Saturday night where they inflicted matchet cuts on them.

“That case was reported to the Police at Oke Baale and I think that was what prompted the Police to go after him. I learnt that the team of Policemen that went to arrest him traced him to Gbeja Primary School field where there was an altercation.

“He was shot in the process and was rushed to a clinic around the place but he was rejected maybe due to the degree of the injury he sustained from the gunshot. He was said to have been taken to LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo where he eventually died.”

He said that when his gang members learnt of his death, they went straight to the police station where they attempted to raze down the station.

Our correspondent learnt that the officers on duty called for reinforcement to prevent the irate youths from burning down the station and four armour personnel carriers, APCs, and armed mobile policemen were deployed to the station to stop the boys from carrying out the threat.

Although normalcy had been restored to the place by the time our correspondent visited the scene, it was observed that three APCs were still stationed at the Police station while broken bottles were scattered all around.

The bonfires made by the irate youths had also been put off.Punch