Modebayo Awosika: The Truth At Last

editorial

At last, the truth has been made manifest. The police have finally admitted in their own report that one of them killed Mr. Modebayo Awosika, the former Relationship Manager with First Bank of Nigeria Limited

To refresh our memory: Awosika was the man shot dead by a policeman in the early hours of 1 October, 2008 in his SUV at Lekki first roundabout, Lekki in Lagos. He was driving home after enjoying himself at a party when he met his untimely end. There was controversy over the circumstances surrounding his death when the police claimed that he died from the injuries he sustained when his vehicle hit a stationary police patrol vehicle at the Lekki Roundabout.

The police, in their initial report also revealed that the vehicle somersaulted several times before lying on its side on the other side of the road.

Suspicions over that police report however arose when a relation of the deceased, Mr. Olanrewaju Odejayi cried foul.

It was Odejayi who put a lie to the police report when he picked holes in a part of the report that Awosika’s vehicle summersaulted several times.

According to him, the front and back windscreens of the vehicle driven by the late Awosika were still intact when he was taken to the accident scene two hours after it happened. This certainly cannot be the state of a vehicle involved in an accident in which the occupant died.

Odejayi also revealed that there was a bullet hole on the side of Awosika’s head and in one of his eyes.

After these revelations, the public mood swung in favour of the Awosikas. The police were accused of murdering the 39-year old banker and burning his vehicle to make it appear like a fatal accident.

Thank God, the truth of the incident has finally come out. The police in their evidence before the court Tuesday where a policeman is being tried for the murder of the late banker, revealed that he was killed by a policeman in the patrol team at that roundabout that fateful day.

The public umbrage against the police at that time is justified because it was clear that the authorities tried to cover up their men for the callous act.

After a wide media coverage of the killing and relentless pursuit of justice by the Awosika family, the police were forced to own up and bring their men for trial.

The police should do everything possible to bring one of the accused who is still at large to face trial like his accomplice.

The nation will not accept excuses that the man absconded from duty and had not been seen since committing the heinous murder. He must be fished out and made to face the law.

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