The Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions has indicted Inspector Dikko Usman of the Nigeria Police Force and others in the murder of Chief Fatai Jubril, the Baale of Lotu community in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area of the state.
PUNCH Metro also learnt on Monday that the officer had been dismissed from the force and charged in court.
The indictment of the inspector was detailed in the DPP’s advisory addressed to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 2 Command Headquarters, and sighted by our correspondent on Saturday.
The advisory, signed by the DPP Deputy Director, Sunmonu Tunde, on behalf of the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, further stated that Dikko, along with Omotola Adeboyejo and Wasiu Agbaraojo, would be prosecuted for conspiracy to commit murder and murder.
The deceased chief was reportedly shot to death in the presence of his wife, Ejiro Jubril, and teenage daughter in the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos State on July 15, 2023, over a land dispute.
The widow told our correspondent, who visited the community in 2023, that she was assaulted while trying to save her husband from being killed by about 50 hoodlums, including two Mobile Police officers.
“I begged them to spare my husband. They started beating me when I held on to my husband. They said my husband and I were going to die together. I was slapped by different people when I was trying to protect my husband because the beating was too much,” she said.
The deceased’s elder brother, Moshood, also said, “They killed my brother right in front of his daughter and his wife. They took the body to Akodo Police Station, where we met with the DPO, IPO, and others.”
Meanwhile, the DPP, in its advisory, noted that the medical cause of the chief’s death certificate and the accounts provided by other eyewitnesses supported the cause of death of the deceased which attributed the death of the deceased to sporadic gunshots by one of the Mobile Policemen procured by Omotola Adeboyejo to the scene on July 15, 2023.”
Despite multiple eyewitness claims that the two Mobile Police officers hired by Adeboyejo fired the shots that killed the deceased, the DPP stated that the ballistic report linked Jubril’s death to shots fired from Usman’s rifle.
The report read in part, “Facts in the duplicate case file reveal that one Chief Fatai Jubril Asalu was shot at on July 15, 2023, at Museyo community, Ajah, and died as a result of the gunshot injuries to the head as indicated in the Medical Cause of Death Certificate dated August 23, 2023, issued by one Dr. O.O. Onayemi, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
“As to which of the two Mobile Policemen fired the shots that killed the deceased, while conflicting eyewitness accounts indicate that both Dikko Usman and Nura Sanni, who were Mobile Policemen at the scene, fired gunshots, however, the ballistic report with Reference Number AR:4100/X/FSL/B.14/2023 dated October 5, 2023, on forensic examination of one expended casing (shell), two TO6 assorted riffles with Breach Nos. 07022939 and 07004676 with three magazines containing 78 lives of ammunition and extracted bullet fragments, both riffles reveal residue of burnt propellant, indicating they were fired sometime and their working mechanisms are complete.
“But Riffle No. 07022939, held by Sanni, displayed a malfunction of the extractor and ejector.”
When asked why the second Mobile Police officer, Inspector Sanni, was not charged in court for the same offence, Ayuba Umma, the spokesperson for Zone 2 Command Headquarters, Onikan, said in an interview with PUNCH Metro on Monday that Sanni had been demoted.
“They were not on illegal duty. The only wrong thing was the use of firearms. The two of them were on duty on the day of the incident, but one of them was accused of shooting.
“This is similar to a situation where two officers are on duty and one commits an offence. It doesn’t mean the other officer should be held responsible for an offence they didn’t commit.
“However, this doesn’t mean he wasn’t punished. He was demoted in rank. It is something we do internally,” Umma stated.
