ONDO, NIGERIA – A yet to be identified trigger-happy police officer in Ondo State has shot dead a commercial motorcyclist on the Benin-Ore Expressway in the state. The body of the unidentified motorcyclist has been deposited at a hospital morgue in Ore.
A source in the state capital of Akure, who confirmed the fatality, told SaharaReporters that the tragic event occurred on Sunday morning at a town called Omifun on the Ore expressway. The source provided SaharaReporters with an “amateur video” from the scene.
In a telephone interview with our correspondent, the source alleged that a bribe-seeking police officer shot and killed the cyclist and immediately fled the scene. According to him, the officer “who is attached to the anti-crime patrol unit of the Ondo State Police Command killed the motorcyclist for refusing to give him a bribe of N50.”
Added the source, “The police officer and his other colleagues fled the scene and ran to safety immediately after the Okada man [commercial motorcyclist] was shot dead.”
Our correspondent reported that the tragic outrage provoked traffic gridlock along the expressway as many sympathetic drivers and travelers parked their vehicles to help in evacuating the body of the deceased from the road.
The video footage obtained by our correspondent shows some irate sympathizers destroying a crested van belonging to the police. Many of the furious eyewitnesses demanded an investigation into the murder of the motorcyclist.
Our correspondent could not reach the Ondo State Police Commissioner, Hilda Ibifuro Harrison, to respond to the fatal shooting as her line was switched off for a prolonged time.