A 35-year old man, Mr Olusola Adegbegha was on Tuesday shot dead by a policeman attached to the Mokola Police Station in Ibadan.
According to the brother of the deceased, Sunkanmi Owoeye, said the deceased had left his Oluyole Estate residence, where he had been staying temporarily with his sister at 5.00am, only for the family to later find out he was dead.
The family was informed by the police that Adegbegha was stopped by the police for a search at Recreation Club area.
However, he was proving difficult for the police, which caused a corporal to take him to the station.
The police claimed that on arriving the station, Adegbegha reversed and zoomed off with the car the moment the corporal alighted to open the gate of the station. This caused the corporal to shoot at the car. The bullet then penetrated the rear trafficator of his Mazda 626 car through the backseat into the back and thigh of the deceased.
Owoeye added that the security guard of Group Medical Hospital, which is situated besides the hospital, also informed the family that the deceased had come to the hospital where he said he had been shot by the police.
Even though the hospital gate was eventually opened, Owoeye blamed the doctor for contributing to the eventual death of his brother due to his insistence on seeing a policeman from the Mokola Police Station before starting treatment.
He disclosed that the police found his brother conscious enough for him to point to the policeman that killed him before he died.
He said that the claim of the police that his brother was escaping while shot was questionable, as the bullet penetrated the rear of the car and it is quite evident that making a turn in the police station is difficult as it had a narrow gate.
Owoeye said it was the belief of the family that there was more than meets the eye and asked for justice to prevail over the killing of his brother.
He revealed that the deceased had fixed his wedding date for March and was expecting the return of his fiancee from Canada for their introduction ceremony by end of January.
In his reaction, the State Deputy Police Commissioner, Mr Clement Adoda, gave his own version of the event starting with a stop-and-search patrol team stopping a green Mazda 626 with plate number PR 61 KJA driven by Adegbegha at about 5.00am.
He said that the deceased had reacted wildly to inquiries about his identity and ownership of the car, which made the patrol team leader detail a corporal to accompany him to the station.
On getting the station, the deceased tried to take off when the corproral alighted to open the gate.
He said the corporal aimed at the tyre and was unaware that the bullet had hit the deceased as he still was able to escape.
It was not until the security guard at the Group Medical Hospital came to inform the police at the station of a man with a gunshot wounds being treated at the hospital, where he later died.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police, however, revealed that the corporal was being detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Iyaganaku where the case is being investigated.