Protests rock Ibadan over alleged killing of teenager

Following alleged repeated killings of youths in Ibadan, Oyo State, by the operatives of the Western Security Network, codenamed Amotekun, hundreds of aggrieved youths took to the streets of the state capital on Wednesday protesting the killings.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that they were protesting against the alleged killing of a teenager, Peter Okafor, in the early hours of Wednesday around Uncle Joe area of Mokola in Ibadan.

NAN gathered that the victim, an apprentice with a printing press in Mokola, was allegedly shot dead.

A similar incident was recorded in the Oke-Ado area of Ibadan on July 21 where two youths were allegedly killed by Amotekun corps while celebrating the Eid-el Kabir festival.

A witness, who pleaded anonymity, told NAN that immediately the boy sighted the Amotekun operatives in the early hours of Wednesday, patrolling the area, he started running to escape.

“I don’t know what he did for them to warrant his running, but they shot him in the head and he died instantly,” the witness told NAN.

NAN further reports that immediately the information got to youths in the area, they mobilised themselves and started making bonfires on the road, thus causing traffic gridlock around the Mokola area.

The protesters later moved to the state Secretariat with the corpse of the victim and prevented both human and vehicular movements around the main gate.

Though Mr Sunday Odukoya, the Executive Assistant on Security to the Governor, made frantic efforts to appease the protesters, they insisted that they must see the Governor, Mr Seyi Makinde.

When contacted, DSP Adewale Osifeso, the state Command’s Police Public Relations Officer, said he was at the scene of the incident.

“I am at the scene of the incident at the moment now. I will reach out to you as soon as I get to the office, please,” Osifeso told NAN.

The State Commander of Amotekun, Retired Col. Olayinka Olayanju, when contacted by NAN, declined to comment on the incident.

Olayanju, who said he could not speak on the matter at the moment, simply told NAN, “we are on top of the incident”.

NAN, however, reports that some anti-riot policemen had been deployed to the scene, and patrolling major roads in the town to prevent the breakdown of law and order. (NAN)