Justice For The Living, Justice For The Dead

By Owei Lakemfa

 Human history is replete with instances of the people getting fed up with official policies and taking on the government. Monday January 9, 2012 was one of those days when the Nigerian people in anger, decided to shut down the country. The populace succeeded in taking over the towns and cities across the country of over 167 million people, but there were desperate efforts to retake the streets. One of them occurred in Ogba, a suburb of Ikeja, the Lagos State capital.

One of the two busiest and longest streets in the area is Yahaya Abatan. But on this day, like in other parts of Lagos, the street was completely deserted with shops and businesses closed and zero vehicular traffic. On a stretch of this road, youths played football with some spectators on the side line, while a few people gathered beside a newspaper vendor reading newspapers and discussing events in the country.

Suddenly, a police van RRS 101A arrived the scene. The police team was led by Chief Superintendent of Police, Mr. Segun Fabunmi the then Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Pen Cinema Police Station. Mr. Fabunmi with a 28-year experience in the police, ordered the youths to stop playing football and disperse. They took it for a joke since they were not demonstrating or hindering anybody from moving about. One of the spectators watching the match, 28-year old Demola Abiodun Aderintola Daramola, a tailor and commercial motorcycle rider jokingly told the police officer to leave the youths alone.