“The police officer shot me five times under a car” – Banker shares torrid ordeal

In November, Mr. Femi Badejo, who works with one of the Access Bank branches in Lagos and his security guard, Joshua Moses, were victims of trigger happy policemen. They had responded to a distress call, after armed robbers raided the banker’s home in Ikota, but ended up shooting at him.

Mr. Badejo is out of hospital and has told his side of the story:

As I discussed the armed robbery incident with other occupants within our apartment complex, we noticed the gate open slightly followed by the unmistakable sounds of a war grade AK47 rifle.

At the Instant, I docked under a car in the apartment complex and noticed my security guard groaning excruciating a few meters from my location. Why did these robbers come back? I asked rhetorically and prayed to be spared. Then as I heard the next round of shots, I felt the venom of the automatic rifle spew all over my body. So intense were the sharp burst of pains that I was on the verge of passing out when the words
“Police” was heard from the shooter”. A surge of deeply felt anger immediately numbed the pains from the fIve gunshot wounds – one in my feet, two in my thigh, one in my bicep and one in my wrist – as I identified myself as a tenant in the apartment complex.

Why did he not identify himself earlier as required by his training? Did the words “This is the police” “Freeze” “Don’t move” go on vacation in police parlance? Why will a police officer shoot an unarmed man five times under a car despite havIng his hands over his head?

My case is a bizarre one. I had been robbed by a gang of armed bandIts. Dispossessed of my valuables without been harmed only to be shot five times by a polIce officer attached to the Ajah Police Station in Lagos state Nigeria! My name is Femi Badejo, a professional in one of Nigeria’s leading financial institution and a victim of a retrogressive, ill trained, unprofessional,
poorly clad and irresponsible Nigerian Police Force. However, I am not alone.

Scores of Innocent lives are snuffed out daily by the very institution established to secure their lives in Nigeria. In November, a policeman shot and killed a bus conductor In the Ketu area of Lagos State over a bus fare change of 30cents. A human rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law estimates that over 54,000 Nigerians were killed illegally from 1999 to 2011 by the Nigerian Police Force. This amounts to an act of genocide against Nigerian
by Nigerians in Nigeria!

Dreams, hopes, aspirations and goals have been brutally pierced by the bullets of a poorly trained “vigilante” unit legally recognized as Police Officers. To further add “salt to the injuries” of the victims’ loved ones are the incessant cover ups, lies and denials by the public relations officers in every jurisdiction where these incidents occur. My shooting was downplayed to a gunshot with a case of mistaken identity attached to it by NgozI BraIde (PRO, NPF Lagos).

While Joshua – the security guard – was said to have been shot by the armed bandits and dead on arrival by the police officers. Joshua who was presumed dead after he was shot by the officer is however recuperating from the three gunshot wounds he sustained.

While it is embarrassing that the Nigerian Police Force represents the decaying fabrics of the larger Nigerian society where politicians will rather loot billions of dollars from the central purse than secure the lives of its citizenry. It’s appalling that an institution established with the foundatIonal principles of equity, fairness, integrity and justice is known for the opposite of these enviable attributes with a skillset of killing the citizens they are meant to protect. Even more appalling is the pervasive non action of the political class – which will prefer to spend billions on frivolities such as a N2.2 billion banquet hall! – public defenders, human rights activists, clergymen and other concerned professionals on these immoral policing anomalies! Soon there will be no citizen to police at this rate! Are we really that helpless?

I am not. My voice will be heard the world over because this culture of impunity must stop! I type every word on my soft touch phone screen with excruciating pains as I still have a bullet logged in my wrist and my fingers remain numb with paddings of gauze and plasters all over my body. I have receIved no apology from the force, I am still Incurring hospital bills running into thousands of dollars, the Lagos State commissioner of police has refused to accept the letter served by my lawyers A.O Fayemiwo & Co, the NPF divisions in Ajah and Maroko have also followed the commissioner’s unprofessional conduct just as the police officer who shot me has not been brought to book.

Once again, my name is Femi Badeo, a Nigerian citizen and I represent countless individuals that have either lost their lives or survived the brutish policing of the Nigerian Police Force and we are fighting back! We must ask the right questions, demand the right answers and collectively find a lasting solution to the endermic problem of brutality by officers of the Nigerian Police Force.