Okada riders, police clash: How CSP Abonde killed in Isolo

The slain CSP, Kazeem Abonde.

MORE facts have emerged on how police officer in charge of operations at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters, Ikeja, Chief Superintendent of Police, Kazeem Abonde was killed during a clash between okada riders and policemen, last Thursday.

The first account said that trouble started when the policemen stormed the area and started seizing motorcycles from the riders. The source stated further that after the policemen had seized the motorcycles and put them in their mini trucks, the okada riders went berserk. The situation degenerated to uncontrollable level, when policemen began to shoot sporadically into the air to scare the riders.

“The okada riders attacked the CSP Abonde, after his colleagues have fled, smashed iron on his head before he collapsed and died.’’

While, another source from the scene said that when the armed policemen stormed the Okada riders park near Eleganza and Canoe areas and were busy implementing the state government restriction order on commercial motorcyclists when the bubble burst. The riders were enraged by the constant raid and tried to resist the policemen to impound their bikes. Some of them manouvered their bikes out from the area, while the unfortunate ones had to grapple with the police who were busy impounding bikes. The situation, however, took a different dimension when those that escaped from the areas re-grouped and surged forward to confront the police. 

They were reportedly advancing towards the police in their numbers, armed with sticks and stones. They succeeded in chasing the armed policemen out from there and even continued the chase towards the main gate leading to the estate. At this stage, it was gathered that the police team led by CSP Abonde abandoned their patrol van and fled in different directions. An eyewitness account said CSP Abonde was making frantic efforts to calm the situation after his boys left, when a gun shot from nowhere hit him. It was not ascertain if the gun shot came from one of the fleeing officers or the irate crowd. But he reportedly fell down moaning in pains and crying out for help. The gunshot forced the okada riders to flee into different directions. Fortunately, some scared onlookers mustered courage and assisted him towards a nearby hospital. As they were nearing the gate to the street where the hospital is located, the irate okada riders, numbering over fifty rushed back and intercepted them thereby forcing the helpers to flee for safety. They reportedly pounced on the wounded officer, smashed his head with large stones and cudgels and took his official pistol.

Another witnesses said that the slain officer would have been saved if his colleagues had not fled from the scene and if a re-enforcement had swiftly arrived the scene immediately.

According to the witness who refused to mention his name, “the sympathetic crowd quickly came to rescue the officer after he was abandoned bleeding and calling for help which did not come from his armed colleagues. 

“We mustered courage in the face of the seeming danger to our lives, lifted and assisted him towards the nearest hospital by the side of the main gate to the street. Nurses were already running out with a stretcher to help us and the wounded officer was thanking us for saving his life, when we saw those okada riders rushing towards us. We quickly left the wounded officers and took to our heels. If we were armed, we would have resisted them and saved the life of the officer. Forever, I will never forget the ferocity of the okada riders anger as they flagrantly descended on the wounded officer as he kept on pleading for mercy. The helpless officer yelled and yelled for help before taking his last breath as blood gushed out from his smashed skull.

However, an okada rider who operates at Canoe area where the ugly incident started said that they went on rampage because of Police extortion.

Okada riders.

According to the rider, who spoke under animosity said: “The policemen always besiege our park, impound our bikes and even arrest us until we cough out between N2,000 and N10,000 to regain freedom. In most cases, they confiscate our bikes and end up disposing them through the back door, claiming that they had taken them to government house, Alausa. Our anger is  because they turned us into their cash cow.”

A resident of the Estate who witnessed the clash, condemned the okada riders unruly behaviour, adding that the riders have become a terrible menace in the estate.

He said: “They have badly compounded the security situation in and around the estate to the extent that most of us are afraid of even strolling around.” He particularly raised alarm over the clandestine operations of the riders by stating “ what shocked me was how they attacked and wounded the police officer. It is obvious that they have guns because the first shot that wounded the officer came from a gun. It is, therefore, obvious that some of them are armed and this must be the focus of security agencies if further brutal killings must be avoided. It should not just be enough impounding their bikes, go into their enclaves which we all know and carry out thorough searches in order to recover all the dangerous weapons in their possession. If this is not done urgently, we are all in trouble.”

Lagos has continued to provide haven for hundreds of thousands of Okada riders barred from operating in other cities/ The state government should do something urgent to cub the reckless attitude of the okada riders.. 

A police officer said that the slain officer was “one of the finest officers in the command.” According to him, he served as Divisional officer meritoriously in many stations in the state before heading B “Ops” at the command headquarters, Ikeja. He was also a lawyer and had concluded plans to retire in some months time and open a viable chamber. We will greatly miss him.

Meanwhile, fear has continued to grip the residents of the estate, especially those living around the Canoe area where the clash started. They are anticipating for police raid.

Abonde has premonition of his death, say colleagues

The slain CSP Kazeem Abonde, who was hacked to death had premonition of his death.

This was disclosed by some of his colleagues who wore forlorn looks yesterday at the command and in their various offices.

Describing Abonde’s death as a painful way to exit the earth, his colleagues said more painful was the fact that he had just eight months to complete the mandatory retirement years in the Police.

His colleagues who spoke with pressmen on the condition of anonymity said late Abonde who was the Operations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command said he would leave Operations unit  for either an administrative unit, when it would be five months to his retirement.

His  proposed desire according to them was to avoid direct confrontation with men of the underworld, owing to the peculiarity of his office.

Unfortunately, his fears were confirmed before he could make the move.

His death sparked up anger from both rank an files and officers of the Lagos State Police Command, as they blamed Police authorities for the cause of the death of Abonde.

Some of them said those who went for the raid were directed not to fire a shot in the process of the raid.

One of them said, “Look at how they just killed a senior police officer like a fowl, simply because they said they should not use their weapons. Under such circumstance, they were free to use their arms according to our code. 

Again, how could they have sent few policemen to such volatile area without enough weapons like tear gas canisters and hot water canon?”.

Another said, “he does saw this coming. He was contemplating on leaving OPs department by December. He told some of us that he would avoid every thing that had to do with operation that period so that he would leave the Police without a scare. But his worst fear happened before he could make that move”.

It was gathered that Thursday’s incident was not the first time commercial motorcyclists would attack policemen in that area. A few years ago, a similar incident in which police vehicles were destroyed occurred.  

Late CSP Abonde was born on January 15, 1967. He hailed from Oba Ora Local Government Area  of  Oyo state .

He was  enlisted into the Nigeria Police on June 15,  1987 and was promoted to the rank of CSP on June 20, 2019 and was expected to  retire  on June 15, 2022.

Late Abonde had his  LLB from the Lagos State University in 2014. He was called to Bar in 2016 and proceeded for his Masters in Law  in 2019, at  the  Lagos State University. 

He had served in different capacities in the Police, some of which were: Operations Officer 1, Lagos State Police Command;’ Divisional Police Officer Ilemba Hausa, Lagos, O/C Human Right, Area G Command, Ogba, Divisional Crime Officer, Satellite  division, Zone 2 command headquarters, Onikan Lagos , Police College Ikeja and Ondo state Police command, Ondo State.

By Our Reporters with Vanguard reports