A 25-year-old man, Moses Adam, has passed after been hit by a ‘stray bullet’ fired by a police officer in Benin City, Edo State.
The unfortunate incident occurred on Friday, September 17, when the deceased, said to be the only son of his parents, arrived Benin from Lagos to attend his sister’s wedding slated for Saturday.
Spokesperson of the command, SP Kontongs Bello, in a statement said Adam was in a bus when he was hit by a stray b*llet fired by an officer who was trying to arrest a m*rder suspect, Ebuka Nwaechie.
“He was rushed to the Edo Specialist Hospital where he gave up the ghost. The erring officer has been arrested and will go through administrative trial that will determine his culpability,” he said.
Police said Nwaechie was allegedly involved in the alleged murder of one Bright Orikose on December 24, 2020. However, Esther, one of Adam’s elder sisters, disagreed with the account. She lamented the attempt by the police to twist the narrative.
“My brother was not killed by a stray bullet as the police claimed. He was aimed at in the second car which Ebuka was not even inside. While treating my brother, the doctor told us that he was hit by a close range bullet and that he lost so much blood before his death,” she said.
According to a report by Foundation For Investigative Journalism (FIJ), the deceased was driving with his friend, Kelvin Uwumunse, when “some police detectives on mufti violently waylaid their cars”
The report said Adam and his friends were unsure of the identity of the people contending the road with them, so they tried to make a detour, but gunshots were fired at them, one of the sh*ts hit Adam in his thigh.
It was gathered that the police afterwards arrested and detained three of Adam’s friends. They also reportedly failed to document the shooting at the station.
“It was after we got to the hospital that the police believed and gave us N120,000 for the treatment,” the family lawyer told FIJ
