A 75-year-old woman, Mrs. Janet Bajide has approached the Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Police brutality to demand the sum of N20 million as compensation for gunshots fired by the police in Ire-Ekiti.
Testifying before the panel, Ma Bejide who is a food vendor from IreEkiti in Oye Local Government Area said she was in her shop on August 1st, 2020 selling rice when she saw policemen shooting sporadically as they drove down the street, adding that she first thought it was teargas that they were shooting until she was hit by bullets.
Giving evidence in Yoruba language, Bejide said “I was selling cooked rice and the policemen came shooting, I bowed down and covered my head with these clothes to protect myself from teargas fumes since I thought it was teargas until I felt bullets hitting my shoulder, neck and leg.
That was all I knew because I blanked out but was later informed that I was rushed to Bimbo Hospital in Ire and thereafter to Ekiti StateTeaching Hospital where I regained my consciousness. I was also informed in the hospital that it was gunshots that hit me, and I was told of a lady who came to my shop, sat beside me and wanted to buy rice for her baby at that moment died instantly from the impact she received from the gunshot from those policemen” Bejide who was on crutches was allowed to sit while giving evidence before the panel.
Ma Bejide reported that she now suffers frequent headaches, eye problems as well as pains on her neck and legs, adding that she needed funds for medical treatment and proper rehabilitation.
The defence counsel, Samson Osobu, during cross-examination, pointed out that the incident occurred in the course of the Ogun festival in Ire Ekiti when gunshots are very rampant and many people visit the community but Bejide refuted the claims, explaining that the day was not an Ogun festival day and that she does not attend Ogun Festival.
