One injured, shop owners, residents flee as police raid Lagos community

Etim Ekpimah

One person was injured in the eyes when policemen carried out a routine raid at the Igbe Laara community in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.

The injured woman, who is a sister to the owner of Green Grace (a shopping mall), was hit in one of her eyes when a bullet from a police gun fired to the ground splashed a stone into one of her eyes.

A senior management in the shopping mall, who craved anonymity, said the police were just shooting indiscriminately on the ground. He added that parts of the debris also hit him.

According to him, he and some of the other workers had to flee the scene before they could be caught in the police bullets.

He said: “We were at work as usual but around 9 pm on Friday, 25, 2021, we saw about nine to 10 police vehicles.

“The police came to our premises and arrested one of our workers who just went outside to take a phone charger he forgot in his car.

“They arrested him and started shooting continuously. They were not shooting in the air; they were shooting on the ground and about 4 to 5 ft above the ground.

“So, the bullets they were firing to the ground gathered debris, which splashed stones into the woman’s eyes. She only came here to deliver something to her brother; she is not working here.”

Many of the shop owners around the area said the commotion was such that they had to close their shops and hurried away to their various houses for safety.

One of the shop owners, Nike Banjoko, told one of our correspondents that she escaped death through sheer providence.

“Bullets were flying like balls of fire in the night. We were confused; I was with my daughter; we did not quite know where to run to.

“The police, upon causing the confusion, did not stop shooting. It was as if they were sent to kill us.

“Since armed robbers and the police do not want us to stay in this area, I am not going to renew my rent when it expires later this year. I’m tired of Igbe Laara,” she said.

A resident, who identified himself simply as Daniel, said the police behaved irresponsibly.

He added: “If you want to chase criminals, you do not just barge into people’s shops when you know there was no such incident at the time.

“I know we need police more than anything else in this area for our safety and businesses, they have to adopt a different approach to the issue of community policing.”

The Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, could not be reached for comments as calls to his telephone were unanswered.

He did not also respond to text message that was sent to his telephone.