Four police officers attached to the Lagos State Police Command have been dismissed for complicit in the killings of
seven traders at Owode Onirin Market in Kosofe Local Government Area of the state.
Their dismissal was revealed to newsmen by the State Commissioner of Police, Olohundare Jimoh, on Thursday in Ikeja.
Orijoreporter recalls that last year’s August some traders in the market were shot dead by policemen on an illegal duty taking side in a dispute arising from demolition of the market and alleged land grabbing.
Led by one Hakim Abiodun Ariori(pictured above), the officers’ victims include: Wale Adebayo, Akinboye Oluwaseyi, Taiye Adeoye, Mufutau Salaudeen and Idowu Abraham.
Subsequently the police authorities in the state declared wanted the trigger-happy cops, and later on announced the arrest and detention of some of them.
Providing an update on Thursday the CP allayed concern that the case has been swept under the carpet saying on the contrary investigation is about to be rounded off while those officers have been dismissed.
“As we speak, we are almost done with the investigation because just a few days back, we received the ballistic examination report of the rifles of the policemen brought in by one Hakim Abiodun Ariori, who allegedly brought policemen from Nasarawa State to the disputed land, leading to the unlawful killing of innocent traders,” Jimoh said.
He added that four police personnel who accompanied Ariori to the disputed land had been in custody at the Force Criminal Investigation Department, where they were tried and subsequently dismissed from the Nigeria Police Force.
“In fact, there are five of them. The last one is still hospitalised due to injuries he sustained during the incident,” he stated.
