IBADAN, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- A Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has sentenced a dismissed police officer, Ogunyemi Olalekan, to life imprisonment for killing 35-year-old, Kolade Johnson.
Olalekan, who was said to be attached to the Special Anti-Cultism Squad (SACS) of the Nigeria Police, shot Mr Johnson in the lower abdomen with an AK-47 rifle at about 5.10 pm on Sunday, March 31, 2019, at a viewing centre in the Mangoro area of Lagos.
Johnson was shot during a raid by police officers at Onipetesi in Lagos, while watching an English premiership match between Tottenham and Manchester United on March 31, 2019.
The incident sparked outrage on social media, after which the police authorities identified Ogunyemi Olalekan, a police inspector, and Godwin Orji, a sergeant, as the officers involved in the shooting.
Following an orderly trial, Olalekan was dismissed from the force after he was found guilty, while Orji was acquitted.
The offence contravenes Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
During the trial, prosecution called seven witnesses, while the defence called two witnesses.
Oluwaseun Williams, a pathologist who testified as the sixth witness, said 35-year-old Johnson suffered six gunshot injuries.
Williams, who is a consultant pathologist at the Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, said he had practised pathology for 10 years and interpreted an autopsy report during the cross-examination.
“There were four injuries on the thigh, two injuries on the hands, one on the right hem-iscrotum (either half of a scrotum), one on the left hemi-scrotum,” he said.
“The injury on the left hemi-scrotum was an abrasion which could be from anything and the second-hand injury was not related to injuries caused by gunshots. Six of the injuries were related to the penetrative missiles.
“The injuries on the thigh were through and through. There are features that are suggestive that they were caused by firearm missiles. We counted six injuries identified as firearm injuries.
The anterior defects in the right hemi-scrotum and thigh had dark burn edges caused by something hot and penetrative at the same time which is suggestive of a bullet.”
The pathologist said a wound on the deceased’s left hand was a gunshot injury while the injury on the right hand was a laceration.
“In this case, the cause of death was gunshot injuries,” Williams told the court.
Although the former police inspector was originally charged with murder, the court found him guilty of manslaughter sake of lack of intention to kill the victim.
Justice Coker further held that the convict would be eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 25 years in prison.
In June 2021, the Lagos judicial panel set up to address cases on police brutality after the EndSARS protest, awarded the sum of N10 million to Johnson’s family.