Narrating his ordeal to SaharaReporters, Rabiu who has been in the wheelchair since 2018 said that the incident happened on November 20, 2018 at around 6pm, at Itire area of Lagos while returning from a place where he went to rent out a shop to a client.
A 63-year-old Lagos State estate agent, Alhaji Akeem Rabiu, who was allegedly shot by the then Itire Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Suliamon Kabiru, in 2018, is now paralysed and has cried out for justice five years after the incident.
Narrating his ordeal to SaharaReporters, Rabiu who has been in the wheelchair since 2018 said that the incident happened on November 20, 2018 at around 6pm, at Itire area of Lagos while returning from a place where he went to rent out a shop to a client.
Rabiu, a native of Odogbolu in Ogun State said that he was at No. 20 Ashimowu Bakare Street, Lawanson, Lagos where he wanted to rent out a shop to a client, when his wife sent his son to tell him that they needed fuel for their power generator at home.
He said, “When my son came to meet me, there was no money with me so I had to go back to my office at No 6 Kasali street because I was expecting another client there.
“On getting to my office, I saw my business partner named Mr Hammed. He told me the client we were expecting hasn’t come so I asked him to lend me a thousand naira (N1,000) but he said he does not have any money on him.
“I dropped the keg I wanted to use to buy the petrol in his car since there was no money to buy it. I then told my friend that I am going home because I don’t like staying outside late. I bade him goodbye and left.
“I left Kasali street around 6.30p.m, I crossed to Ramoni street. As at that time, there was no trace of violence. Before I could get to No 2 Ramoni street, I heard a gunshot from my back. I fell down immediately, I tried to get up about four times but I was just hitting my head on the ground.
“About two minutes after, a policeman came to meet me where I was lying down in a pool of blood wanting to shoot me again. He called me a thief but I told him that I am not a thief but an estate consultant agent. I told him I just left my office at Kasali and I am going to my house at No 8 Adekoya Street Off Ashimowu Bakare.
“He helped me to pick my car key from the floor. He asked his fellow police officers to carry me to the bus [Lagos transport bus] which they used for patrol, when they were carrying me I sighted one of the policemen that I know, I called him but he didn’t answer me.
“They threw me at the back of the bus and drove to Ogunbiyi Bus Stop, they all got down leaving me alone in the bus. By then, I was already bleeding heavily. There is one of my clients, Mr Orukotan. It was Mr.Orukotan that made them take me to hospital. They took me to Aishat Specialist Hospital opposite LUTH (Lagos State University Teaching Hospital).
“Mr Orukotan and the DPO of Itire Police Division came to my wife and told her that I was in the hospital but the DPO did not drop a single dime for my hospital bill. The doctor could not remove the bullet out of my body, so I was transferred to UCH (University Teaching Hospital) in Ibadan. I was stable but still in pain and in a wheelchair till now. I have spent N3.5m at the hospital.”
The father of four children said that his medical reports indicated that “he might not be able to walk again with his two legs as a result of the gunshot.”
Akeem told SaharaReporters that he was worried by security reports that policemen were attempting to retrieve the bullet extracted from his body by the doctors at the UCH, hence, in a letter dated January 4, 2019, he appealed to the Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee of the hospital not to release the bullet.
Extraction of Akeem’s letter to the hospital read, “I kindly write to inform the hospital management, your good offices and the team in charge of my care not to release the bullet, or any substance removed from my body during surgery to anybody or agency without my consent.”
Akeem had also in a petition by his counsel, Oyewole Lasisi, entitled: ‘Petition Against Unlawful Shooting of Mr Akeem Rabiu Sanni by Men and Officers of the Itire Police Station, Surulere, Lagos’, had also insisted that he was not involved in any struggle with anybody or in any chaotic situation that might have warranted the unlawful shooting, adding that he was also not running away from the scene of crime, neither was he resisting arrest by the police.
It was gathered that the accused DPO, Sulaimon Kabiru, denied being responsible for the shooting as he insisted that as the DPO of the station, cultists engage themselves in a fight and he called and he went there to rescue him, questioning if that is a crime?
Suliamon also insisted that on the day the incident happened, he didn’t carry a gun, and that on the same issue, somebody was arrested with a gunand that Akeem was not the only one who was shot as another person was also shot.
Previous reports quoted the accused DPO as saying, “They (Akeem’s family) are only claiming that what was extracted from his body was not a pellet but a bullet, and therefore, it must be that of the police. Is it only the police that are firing shots from guns in Nigeria today? That’s what happened and the family has written a petition to the police. The police will answer them.”
But Rabiu’s wife, Oluseyi told SaharaReporters that the Lagos State Police Command had investigated the matter and had confirmed to them that Suliamon was the one who shot Rabiu.
The former Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Chike Oti, had confirmed in some reports that the command had commenced an investigation into the allegation, but claimed that the victim’s lawyer was the one frustrating the matter.
But Rabiu’s wife told SaharaReporters that the case file was transferred to Panti where their lawyer was to get his copy but that the lawyer and the family have been to Panti more than 20 times but the case file was not released to them.
However, SaharaReporters contacted the current Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, for an update on the command’s investigation on the matter and the actions taken but calls made to his phone were not answered nor text message sent to him responded to at the time of filing this report.