Doctors at Lagos State University
Teaching Hospital, Ikeja are battling to save the life of a security
guard, Joshua Musa, who was shot by policemen after a robbery at a house
in Ikota, Lagos, on Saturday.
Joshua, 22, who could not speak when our
correspondent visited him at the surgical emergency ward on Monday, was
shot in the left side of the chest and abdomen by the policemen, who
responded to a distress call when armed robbers stormed the house.
Joshua had a pipe passed to the two entry wounds in his chest and abdomen.
The security guard’s brother, Nuhu, who
also witnessed the incident, said the five policemen started shooting
sporadically immediately they came into the compound after the robbers
had left.
“They came about one hour after the robbers were gone. The policemen were shooting at anything that moved,” he said.
Nuhu said Joshua was running towards where he took cover when he was shot.
He said, “Where I was when the shooting
started was a little safe, but when Joshua realised that they started
shooting at the residents, he ran to join me.
“But a policeman sighted him, turned and fired in his direction. He was hit twice.”
One of the bullets was said to have gone
through Joshua’s chest and went out of his back. The second one was
lodged in his abdomen but removed in the hospital.
Nuhu said another tenant, Femi Badejo, a
banker, pleaded with the policemen that he was a tenant in the house
but they shot at him and when he hid under a car, they kept shooting at
him.
According to him, a woman who offered to
show the policemen her room just to assure them she resided in the
house was also shot but the bullet only grazed her head.
Joshua’s uncle, Adamu Askira, was seething in anger at the hospital, saying the policemen acted irresponsibly.
Askira, a retired assistant suprintendent of police, said Joshua had received four pints of blood since he got to the hospital.
He said, “That operation by the
policemen was cowardly. How can you get to a robbery scene and start to
shoot everything you see?
“The normal thing to do is to ensure
that the occupants of the house are first identified. Anybody else who
has no business in the house can then be grabbed.
“That line of action by the policemen is
utter foolishness. I was a policeman but I cannot give a sensible
explanation to what those men did.’’
Doctors in charge of Joshua could not comment on record because of the hospital’s policies.
Joshua was being prepared for a scan to
determine if any bullet fragment was still lodged in his body when he was visited on Monday.
His wife fanned him on a bed he was lying.. She however declined to grant any interview
Joshua’s uncle said he had not decided
what the line of action would be against the police’s unprofessional
conduct, saying what was uppermost in his mind was his nephew’s life.
Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi
Braide, said the Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, had ordered an
investigation into the incident.
She said, “When I spoke with the area
commander on Sunday, he said after they received the distress call, a
team was sent there and they met the banker lying under the vehicle.
“I think they must have thought he was
one of the robbers because as the team was coming, someone within the
house was telling them that the robbers were still in the compound. They
then shot him but they met the security guard already shot.”
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