According to TheCable, Mrs. Olamide Erinfolami, the widow of a
police inspector who was shot dead during the #EndSARS protest, has
accused her late husband’s colleagues of killing him.
When she appeared before the Lagos state judicial panel on Friday,
the widow said Ayodeji Erinfolami, a police inspector, was shot dead
while trying to quell the #EndSARS protest at Surelere, Lagos, on
October 12.
In a petition before the panel on Friday, Gbemiga Ogunleye, counsel
to the widow, told the court that Erinfolami, a police inspector
attached to anti-cultism and kidnapping unit, Area C, Surulere, was shot
by police officers who “forcibly broke the peaceful protesters”.
She said the police abandoned his corpse at the hospital without contacting his family.
Ogunleye presented a flash drive containing a video showing a police
officer with his intestine open as he laid on the ground crying for
help.
He said the police officer is the husband of the petitioner.
Narrating her testimony before the panel, the widow said she lives in
Ado-Ekiti, capital of Ekiti, with her children and was informed about
the death of her husband by someone in Maiduguri, Borno capital.
“On October
12 2020, I was in Ado-Ekiti because I don’t stay with him in Lagos. He
called me in the morning that he was going to the office and I told him
that whenever he gets to work he should call me. I went to the market
and I came back in the evening, I did not hear from him,” she said.
“Around 5 pm, I had a call from someone from Maiduguri and she said
‘Aunty Ola, did you hear what happened?’ And I said what? She said my
husband was shot during #EndSARS protests at Surelere and I asked her:
‘How did it happen?’ Then she said she did not know that she saw it on
social media.
“I called his phone number, he has two phone numbers, nobody was
picking. After about 45 minutes, I now called his number, a girl picked
the call. I now asked her what happened, she said my husband was shot
during #EndSARS protest.”
The widow also accused the police of abandoning her family, adding that they have refused to release his corpse for burial.
The hearing became heated during the cross examination by Cyril
Ejiofor, police counsel, who argued that the police did not neglect the
family of the deceased and that the widow had been compensated.
“In the petition, you claimed that police killed your husband,” the police counsel queried.
“Yes, I said my husband was shot dead by police during the #EndSARS protest in Surelere,” the widow responded.
Ejiofor argued that the petitioner cannot conclude that her husband
was shot dead by police officer because she was not at the scene of the
incident.
Ejiofor said the widow wouldn’t have known if the police authorities
visited the three-bedroom flat rented by her husband in Lagos, since she
is staying in Ado-Ekiti.
“They have not visited us, nobody from the police contacted his family,” the petitioner responded.
“Were you told that your husband was taken to the hospital,” the police counsel asked.
“After three weeks, Sergeant Monday told me that they were the one who told him to hospital,” she responded.
“Were you told that as at the time he was taken to the hospital, he was also alive?” police counsel asked.
“Yes, Monday told me,” the petitioner responded.
“Your husband visited two hospitals before he gave the ghost. True or false,” police counsel asked.
“Yes, I heard Eko Hospital and one other,” she responded.
On the compensation given by the Lagos state government, the police
counsel asked the widow about the value of the cheque given to her by
the government.
“I was given N10 million,” the widow said.
The petitioner is among the six widows of police officers that the
Lagos state government compensated with N10 million each over the death
of their husbands during the #EndSARS protest.
Ejiofor asked the panel for an adjournment for the petition to allow the police bring a witness.
Dorris Okuwobi (retired), chairperson of the panel, adjourned the case till January 15, 2021.
