A stray bullet allegedly shot from the guns of policemen from the Ijora Badia Police Division, Lagos, has killed a 16-year-old boy, Emmanuel Chukwu.
According to reports, Chukwu, an SS2 student of Randle Secondary School, Apapa, was killed in front of his parent’s residence at Fadaini Street, Ijora, Badia, as police tried to dispel protesting youths in the area.
The protest was said to have been caused after policemen from the division rescued a female kidnap suspect in the area.
The suspect allegedly tried to kidnap a five-year-old girl in the area, where kidnapping was said to be common and the previous cases remained unsolved.
Residents then beat her up and attempted to lynch her before she was rescued by policemen from the division and taken to the station.
Youths in the area then mobilised and stormed the station around 8am on Sunday, demanding that she be released to them as the previous cases handled by police did not yield any fruit.
The protestors allegedly went violent after their request was unanswered, and began to pelt the station with stones and other dangerous objects.
The policemen were said to have pursued the protestors and shot off rounds of bullets, one of which killed the boy.
The Punch quoted the Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, Chike Oti, as saying that the boy was one of the violent protesters, a claim his mother, Ijeoma Chukwu, denied.
Chukwu said that she was inside the compound of her residence when neighbours informed her that the police had shot her son in front of the residence.
She said her son was sleeping but was woken up by the noise generated by the police and protesters.
Chukwu said her son had gone to the front of the compound to get a glimpse of what was going on when the stray bullet hit him.
She was reportedly prevented from seeing his corpse but it was taken to a mortuary.
According to Chukwu, the police branded her son as one of the protestors to justify sweeping the case under the carpet.
She demanded that justice be done in the matter.