Stray bullet mishap: Killing of young school girl unsettle many in Lagos
The ongoing pandemonium over the ban of Okada and Keke from operating in major parts of Lagos has yielded a tragic outcome after a young schoolgirl was killed by a stray bullet yesterday. The innocent girl was caught in a clash between the police and Okada riders who were protesting in the Iyana-Ipaja area of Lagos.
In what has become an unfortunate modus operandi for Nigerian Police during protests, the police fired live bullets into the crowd and the young girl was hit in the process. People nearby tried to help her by wrapping clothes around the wound, but before she could get medical attention, she was already dead.
The mindless act which was widely shared on social media has been generating a lot of outrage and many people are grieving the needless death.
“This kind of disregard for human life can’t continue in this country!! How can the police even shoot straight at protesters? And now, that little girl is gone just like that,” Etieno Joe, an enraged man who was distraught by the incident tweeted.
“My body is doing me somehow,” a shocked young lady, Angel Olamide tweeted. “Person pikin and these people will still carry on like nothing happened. Please Sanwo-Olu this is not what we voted for in this Lagos.”
Some residents expressed shock on how the police still haven’t learned how to engage a rioting crowd. Others blamed Lagos state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu for enacting the Okada ban which led to the incident.
Yvonne Ivy attacked the governor’s conscience in a tweet where she asked if he would be happy having his child murdered in cold blood like the young girl.
“@jidesanwoolu have you seen that young school girl that got caught by a stray bullet because of your #okadaban at Iyana Ipaja? What if that was your child? Would you be happy Jide?A governor that has no empathy for its citizens is no governor at all” she lambasted.
The bigger issue is with the police who lack restraint while carrying out their duties. Recently, the killing of Kolade Johnson by police officers caused a major backlash, but some months later, another mishap has taken place.
Unlike several other stray bullet incidents, this one unnerved a lot of people because it wasted a young girl that was coming back from school.
Morenike Eyinju who believes the police had no business going to impound motorcycles in the area faulted them for being “unfortunate souls”.
“Alimosho LG wasn’t even on the okada/keke ban but policemen were still behaving like the unfortunate souls that they are,” she tweeted.
According to Lagos Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotoso, Okada is only banned in 6 out of the 20 Local Government Areas in Lagos. The scene of the incident at Iyana-Ipaja is in Alimosho LGA which is reportedly not included in the ban.
