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A caterer, Mrs Tolulope Openiyi, yesterday demanded justice for her late husband, Olusegun Openiyi, killed 13 years ago by the police before the Lagos judicial panel investigating SARs abuses.
Led by Babatunde Adefilaka, her counsel, Mrs Openiyi told the panel led by Justice Doris Okuwobi that her husband was killed by one Sergeant Jide Akintola, force number 32405 on Sunday, August 19, 2007, barely two years into their marriage.
She said her first child, Ayomide was two and a half years old while her sister was two weeks old.
According to the account she rendered amid tears, she said her husband, then a staff of Celtel, had gone to UNILAG on network base surveillance when on his way back he was stopped by the police around Yaba.
She said they were informed that Akintola allegedly first shot at the tyre of her husband’s car before shooting him at close range on the left side of his chest.
She said when Akintola and colleagues found that he was an innocent person, they rushed him to Military Hospital, Yaba where he later died.
She said his body was transferred to then Lagos General Hospital, Ikeja and marked “unknown person” by the police.
She said an autopsy performed on the body of her husband by one Dr Soyemi confirmed that he died of gunshot.
Mrs Openiyi said sergeant Akintola, who allegedly killed her husband, was detained for some time by the DPO, Sabo Police Station, Samuel Olukayode, but was never charged before any court.
She said her father-in-law, Micheal Openiyi, who also appeared before the #EndSARS panel petitioned the state Commissioner of Police and Inspector General of Police but nothing was done.
She said since her husband’s death, life has been tough as she struggled to raise their two children.
Under cross examination by police counsel, Cyril Ejiofor, father of the victim, Micheal Openiyi, said the Sabo Police Station DPO, Samuel Olukayode, invited him to the station and narrated to him how his son was killed.
He said he asked to see Akintola who shot his son and he was brought out of the cell.
He said with a bible in his hand, he prayed God for justice to be done in the matter, “no matter how long it takes.”
The septuagenarian said he approached the chamber of Festus Keyamo to file a suit against the police but that he could not pursue the case for lack of funds.
The Chairman of the panel, Justice Doris Okuwobi, admitted the autopsy report, the CTC of the publications made in The Sun, The Guardian and News Star as exhibits.
She adjourned the matter to December 8 for continuation of hearing.
