Mukaila Fadeyi, the coroner presiding over the inquest of Jumoke Oyeleke, has paid a visit to the scene where the young lady was shot dead by the police.
Fadeyi, according to a report by Premium Times, visited the area at Ojota, Lagos State, on Monday.
Oyeleke was shot after police fired shots to disperse the protesters during a Yoruba Nation rally on July 3, 2021.
But the police denied responsibility for her death, saying its officers never fired a “single live bullet.”
The then Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, had said Jumoke was abandoned after she was stabbed.
However, a witness statement obtained by SaharaReporters as of September 20, 2021, confirmed that Oyeleke was killed by a stray bullet.
Meanwhile, during the coroner’s visit to the scene on Monday, a witness who had earlier testified, Banjoko Philips, explained how he and a trader carried Oyeleke’s remains from his compound outside to limit the number of people on the premises.
According to him, the deceased, who was at the time a salesgirl, was arranging her wares when the police chased some people inside his compound.
He added that the deceased also ran when she saw the police chasing people into the compound but fell after she was hit by the bullet.
“She was lying chest down. The point of entry (bullet) was under the left arm,” Philips said, describing the posture the deceased was in at the time of her death.
He said he had observed the incident from his apartment’s window.
Phillips informed the coroner that the shooting started immediately after the (former) Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, left the scene.
He also claimed that some of the residents saw some police officers searching the corpse.
“In my opinion, it was the policemen that shot her. It was a stray bullet,” he said.
Another witness, Okebe David, a snacks trader in the area, told the coroner that he and Philips carried the corpse outside the compound because of the crowd.
The 29-year-old said when the shooting started, he and some men jumped the fence into the compound where the deceased was shot.
Earlier at the proceedings in Ogba, a state lawyer, Oluwaseun Akinde, told the corner that the pathologist, Sunday Soyemi, from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) earlier scheduled for cross-examination was absent.
“He (pathologist) received the information late. He has a defence in LASUTH for his programme,” the lawyer said.
He also told the coroner that the investigating police officer and his lawyer were also absent.
“And today is the day we have all agreed to visit the locus where the deceased died,” Mr Akinde told the coroner. We have informed all the parties meant to be at the locus.We got a call from Barrister Adebesin, (police lawyer), he said he will join us at the locus.”
In his response, the coroner said that “I’m not going to force anybody. At the end of the matter, the court knows what to do.”
Fadeyi fixed May 16, for further hearing of the matter. Continue Reading
