The police in Niger State have allegedly shot dead a tiler, Vincent Emmanuel, during a mob action in the Gwazunu area of the state.

Flavision gathered that a suspected thief was apprehended on Sunday by some residents, who attempted to lynch him.

However, the 29-year-old Vincent, who was passing by at the time, prevailed on the mob not to take the law into their hands.

He was said to have told them to hand over the suspect to the police, but on getting to the police outpost in Gwazunu, the cops chased the crowd away without finding out the reason for their visit.

The victim’s sister-in-law, who identified herself simply as Mama Ojo, said one of the policemen opened fire on the crowd and Vincent was hit by a bullet.

She alleged that the police refused to release Vincent’s corpse to the family for burial.

She said,

Vincent told me that he wanted to go and watch football and in the evening as I was coming back from somewhere, I saw him on the way and I disembarked from the vehicle and we trekked together.

When we got to the Snooker Board area, we saw some of the people, who were playing football beating a man. They said Kadaka people came to steal someone’s phone.

According to them, three people came to steal, but two escaped and the one apprehended was beaten by the mob. When we saw that, I told Vincent that we should go, but he said the mob could kill the suspect, so he approached them that they should not take the law into their hands, but instead hand him over to the police.

He took the suspect alongside the footballers to the police, while I was waiting for him outside; but as they were entering the station, the police told them to go back, but they stayed put at the entrance to the station; as my brother-in-law moved to turn back, one of the policemen just shot him and he fell down on the spot.

Later, some policemen drove into the station and started shooting indiscriminately. They put him in their vehicle and drove off, while shooting in the air. We reported the matter at the ‘B’ Division Police Station, but we have not been allowed to see his corpse. We were told to go and that they would call us, but till date, we have not seen his corpse nor heard anything from the police.

However, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Wasiu Abiodun, claimed in a statement that the victim was shot dead by the mob.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.