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How corper met untimely death at brother’s graduation party

The killing of a serving corps member, Damilola Iyanda, by a policeman while celebrating the convocation of his younger brother who recently graduated from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, Oyo State, has left his family in grief and students of the university crying for justice, BABATUNDE TITILOLA writes

On Monday, April 24, Damilola Iyanda, travelled From Ibadan to Ogbomosho town in Oyo State to celebrate with his younger brother, Oluwafemi, who was graduating from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho.

Oluwafemi, a student of Accounting and Management Sciences, participated in the convocation ceremony of the institution which started that Monday. His older brother, Damilola, was a serving corps member whose place of primary assignment was in Ibadan, the state capital.

The two brothers decided to share a memorable night after Oluwafemi became a fresh graduate of the institution by having a night out at a popular club near the school’s gate.

However, what was thought to be a night of joy soon turned sour for the two brothers as one lost his life while the other escaped death by the whiskers.

Findings by Saturday PUNCH revealed that a disagreement ensued between a partygoer and a bouncer while the Iyanda brothers were having fun in the club. The disagreement escalated into a frenzy and a policeman started shooting indiscriminately in a bid to disperse the irate crowd.

Our correspondent gathered that the brothers went outside to see what was going on when a bullet hit Damilola in the head and he died within minutes while his brother, Oluwafemi, got shot in the arm. In a matter of minutes, the Iyanda family lost a son while the other was left battling for his dear life.

“We were at a lounge in the Under-G area for a convocation party,” Oluwafemi, who survived the gunshot, began his story.

“Around 2 am, we heard that some people were fighting outside. When we discovered that the place was getting rowdy, we stepped out only to see policemen dispersing the crowd and shooting directly at the people.

“I sustained bullet wounds, but my brother, who came for my convocation, was shot in the head. He was confirmed dead at the LAUTECH Teaching Hospital and was taken to the mortuary this morning (Tuesday, April 23, 2024).”

An eye-witness who preferred to be identified as Abiodun told our correspondent that the two brothers had nothing to do with the argument that resulted in the shooting. Narrating how it happened, Abiodun said a disagreement ensued between another graduating student and the bouncer in the bar.

“The policeman came in between the person arguing with the bouncer. That was when the shooting started. It was later we saw that two people had been shot and they were brothers.

“The older one was shot in the head while his brother who was a fresh graduate was shot in the arm. The one who was shot in the head died immediately. The brother who was shot in the head was not a student of LAUTECH but was a serving corps member; he came purposely to celebrate with his brother who was graduating that day,” the eye-witness added.

Distraught family

When our correspondent reached out to the family on Wednesday, it was confirmed that Oluwatobi had been discharged from the hospital and now receiving treatment at home in Ekiti State.

The uncle to the brothers, Lawrence Iyanda, who spoke on behalf of the family said the pain of losing a son and almost losing another had been unbearable for the parents.

Being a godfather to both Damilola and Oluwafemi, Lawrence told our correspondent that the loss was a heavy burden to bear while narrating how the achievements of the two brothers made the family proud.

He said that he left his house in Ado after he was informed of the incident and travelled to Ogbomosho where he learnt that Oluwafemi’s brother, Damilola, had been lost to the cold hands of death.

“I live in Ado and had to travel down to Ogbomosho to rescue Oluwafemi when I had what happened. We have taken him out of the hospital in Ogbomosho and now at home in Ekiti. I have been consoling the parents since and other people are here too.

When our correspondent reached out to Lawal on Friday, he said the family was still in shock.

He said, “The whole family is still in shock. As we are talking now (on Friday morning), I am going to buy another set of drugs.”

Asked what steps the family was planning to take regarding the deceased, Lawrence said the family would be seeking justice and called on the government and relevant authorities to come to their aid.

“We want justice to be done in this matter. We also want the government to come to assist us because we do not know where to turn now. We learnt that the police command has arrested the police officers involved in the matter. We appreciate that,” he said.

Authorities react

The Oyo State Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps, Odoba Oche, confirmed that the deceased was a corps member.

He said, “We have confirmed that the deceased was a corps member serving in Ibadan North Local Government. He was reportedly invited to his brother’s convocation at LAUTECH where the unfortunate incident happened.”

When contacted, the Dean of the Division of Students’ Affairs, Dr Adewusi Adepoju, told our correspondent to reach out to the school’s public relations officer instead.

“You can call the university’s public relations officer. He is in the best position to attend to you,” he said.

During a call with our correspondent on Wednesday, the institution’s PRO, Lekan Fadeyi, confirmed that the incident happened in the early hours of Tuesday but refuted claims that it happened within the school premises.

Fadeyi said the school’s convocation ceremony which started on Monday was concluded in the afternoon and that the management did not sanction any party outside the premises.

He said, “The incident you are talking about did not take place on our campus. There was no fracas on our campus. We had our convocation on Monday and it started at 10 am and we concluded everything by 1 pm. There was no incident. Later, we heard that some students and their friends went into a nightclub.

“We do not have a hotel on campus not to talk of nightclubs. The incident you are talking about did not take place until around 2 am. As a non-residential university, we wouldn’t have kept any student on campus till 2 am because we have no business keeping anybody on campus till that time.”

He also said the deceased was not a student of the university.

“But when we heard, we conducted investigations and discovered that the student that died was never our student. I challenge anybody who claims the person was our student to tell us his name, course of study, and matriculation number,” he added.

The spokesperson told Saturday PUNCH that the school would not get involved in matters that were not connected to it.

Fadeyi said, “Some people gathered to protest on the streets that were not on our campus because someone got killed. As Students’ Affairs, we feel concerned, but it has nothing to do with LAUTECH.”

The PRO, however, neither confirmed nor denied when our correspondent asked him whether the second victim who suffered a gunshot wound was one of the students who took part in the convocation on Monday.

“Please, provide me with his matric number so I can verify,” he said.

However, the institution’s Registrar, Dr. Kayode Ogunleye, in a release on Thursday, confirmed that Oluwafemi graduated from the university. Ogunleye added that the deceased had no association with the university.

He said, “The university management has been able to confirm that an ex-student of the university, Iyanda Femi Israel, who is a graduate of the Department of Management and Accounting, sustained a gunshot injury during the incident that occurred in a club outside the university and was immediately rushed to the hospital.

“Furthermore, information made available to the management confirmed that the person who was reportedly shot dead was neither a student nor a graduate of the university. Since the occurrence of the incident, appropriate government agencies have swung into action to investigate the matter and take appropriate actions. Meanwhile, necessary actions are already being taken to monitor the health of the injured ex-student.”

Arrests made

Findings by Saturday PUNCH revealed that the police arrested the partygoer who caused the rancour and the policeman alleged to have fired shots that killed Damilola and injured Oluwafemi.

It was gathered that the two were transported to the police headquarters in Ibadan on Tuesday for questioning.

A student in the institution, Yinka (surname withheld), however, told our correspondent that the police later released the partygoer on Tuesday after students’ leaders reached out to the appropriate authorities.

Yinka said, “After the whole incident, the police initially left but they came back to arrest the guy that was disagreeing with the bouncer. Yesterday (Tuesday) morning, we got to the police station and they told us that the student had been transferred to Ibadan and the police officer who was said to have fired the shots had also been taken to Ibadan.

“After that, we spoke with them at the station and we were told that the student was only invited for questioning, which is normal. We spoke with him over the phone too, and he said he was alright. We were promised that he would be released and that we should send someone to stand as surety. We sent some people to Ibadan and they went there yesterday to secure his release. He has been released and they came back to Ogbomosho yesterday (Tuesday).”

During an interview with our correspondent on Wednesday, the Secretary of the Joint Campus Committees of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Olayinka Tiamiyu, said the students would seek justice for the deceased.

He said, “We wanted the student who was arrested to be released and he has been released. Now, we demand justice for the victim who died and his brother who was shot in the arm. Also, we demand that there should be an immediate withdrawal of police officers from the school environment.”

Tiamiyu, who doubles as the Acting Vice President of the National Association of University Students, told Saturday PUNCH that the police officer who allegedly fired the gunshots that killed Damilola and wounded Oluwafemi had been identified by the students. He noted that the policeman was a known face in Ogbomosho.

He said, “There were some eyewitnesses who saw the police officer and they identified him. He is known to everyone in that area. He was a top SARS officer. He was part of the reformed SARS.

“There have been a lot of allegations against him. That is why everybody knows him. He is a known police officer. During the #EndSARS protests, he was arrested. People identified him to be the same person who shot the two brothers.”

Allegations against errant cop

Saturday PUNCH gathered that the policeman who was alleged to have shot indiscriminately into the air was known for causing panic in the area before the Tuesday incident.

A former student of the institution who wanted to be identified as Oluwamayokun said, “The policeman who shot at the student is known for such an act. He once worked in Igbeti before he was transferred because of how he used to disrupt the peace of the community. The residents of Ogbomosho too have always complained about his unprofessional conduct and ethics.”

Saturday PUNCH monitored comments across social media platforms showing the outrage that resulted from the incident.

On Instagram, a user, lil_vastsmg, said, “Na king lifestyle dem dey live for here. They arrest people for no reason and take money from dem.”

Another student who did not want to be named told our correspondent that the protest was needed due to the increasing cases of police brutality and unprofessional conduct against the youths in the town. He added that the police were fond of visiting certain spots around the school area to demand money from students.

“We protested after the incident on Tuesday. During the protest, we met with the dignitaries who came for the convocation on Tuesday and they said they would do something about it,” he added.

An X (formerly Twitter) user, @yomicoalx, in a post, said, “This particular guy (policeman) has been terrorising Ogbomosho for years.”

Another user, @OluPetersJr, said, “He trended during the EndSARS period too na. So, SARS still dey terrorise students for that way? Omo, ikunle abiyamo o.”

Police blame cultists

The Oyo State Police Command, while confirming the incident, said the policemen who were involved in the incident had been detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku, Ibadan, and case has been transferred to the homicide department of the SCID.

The police spokesperson, however, explained that the incident happened after the police reacted to a distress call from a nightclub about cultists who were allegedly disturbing the public peace.

In a statement on Thursday, he said, “Investigation report reveals that during the early hours of the same date and time, a distress call was received by operatives of the command’s monitoring unit stationed within Ogbomoso through the director of a popular night club within the axis, requesting immediate intervention and protection from rampaging suspected student cultists who were at the time harassing guests and destroying club property.

“In a swift response to the call by the club director, a team of officers led by one Insp Rasheed Saheed arrived at the scene. The fracas worsened as deliberate efforts were made by the suspected cultists to prevent the police from further gaining access into the crime scene while shots were allegedly fired from different angles, including from the intervening officers who fired warning shots to disperse onlookers.

“While the Oyo State Police Command maintains its stance towards having a people-friendly police Force driven by professionalism and respect for the rights of the citizens, it also awaits the result of the post-mortem on the deceased to further assist with the investigation.”

However, a security consultant, Anselm Ozueh, in an interview with our correspondent, said not all conflicts required the discharge of live ammunition by the police.

He said, “Why would the police resort to shooting people in public? When there is a conflict, they could use teargas canisters to suppress it and it will work maximally. It shows that the police need training and retraining on how to approach situations in public.

“What happened in the school area was not the case of armed fighting. So, why would guns be needed to suppress the conflict? You do not need live ammunition to disperse students in a university environment.

Even for a criminal, a policeman cannot just shoot a criminal in the head or anywhere.”

The security expert, Ozueh, noted that the police needed to undergo a reform that would improve their public image and how they solve problems.

“Their brand is already damaged and they need to clean themselves of the negative perception from the public. Police are supposed to be our friends. In saner climes, when a citizen is stranded, it is the police that will help that person find their way and protect them all the way.

Another security expert, Akin Adeyi, said cases of unprofessional conduct by police officers would continue to rise until there was proper training and sensitisation on the mode of engagement.

“This has been a recurring topic in Nigeria. How well-trained are the police? How well-trained are they in gun handling? How well-trained are they in diffusing conflict in school communities?

“A campus community is quite different from other communities. The way you manage conflict in a university environment is different from how you manage conflict in other environments,” Adeyi added.