Police charge Yoruba Nation protester for ‘murder’ of salesgirl killed during rally

The Lagos police command has charged Tajudeen Bakare, a Yoruba Nation protester, for the murder of Oyeleke Jumoke, the lady killed during a rally in the state.

On July 3, Yoruba Nation agitators converged at the Ojota area of Lagos to demand an independent state for the south-west region.

TheCable had reported that police shot into the air and fired teargas to disperse the crowd.

During the protest, Jumoke, a 25-year-old salesgirl, was found dead after police fired shots to disperse agitators.

She was said to have been killed by a stray bullet, but police claimed an examination of her body revealed stab wounds as the likely cause of her death.

However, an autopsy report from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital showed that Jumoke died from “hemopericardium, disruption to the heart and lungs and missile injury to the chest”.

Commenting on the development, Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide, a Yoruba rights group, said the police on Monday charged Bakare, popularly known as Ogboni chief, for the murder of Jumoke.

“That you, Tajudeen Bakare, ‘M’, and others now at large, on the 3rd of July 2021 at about 10:00hrs at Ojota area of Lagos in the Lagos Magisterial District did unlawfully kill one Jumoke Oyeleke ‘F’ with a Baretta pistol hold in your possession during your unlawful assembly and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos state, 2015,” one of the counts charge attached to the statement reads.

The Yoruba group said the 48 other protesters arrested by the police were charged for “unlawful assembly, unlawful society and conduct likely to cause breach of public peace”.

“The Lagos state commissioner of police, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu, has charged the 48 Yoruba Nation Protesters arrested on Saturday 3rd July, 2021 in Ojota, Lagos before a Magistrate Court sitting in Yaba,” the statement reads.

“They were charged for unlawful assembly, unlawful society and conduct likely to cause breach of public peace.

“However, one of the arrested protesters, Tajudeen Bakare (the popular Ogboni Chief) was charged by the Police for the murder of a Satchet Water Hawker, Jumoke Oyeleke, killed by a stray bullet during the protest.

“The bail granted to all the protesters was upheld by the court but that of Bakare was revoked. The court refers Bakare’s case to the Director of Public Prosecutor (DPP) for further advise.”