16th February, 2012
An Ebute Meta Magistrates’ Court in Lagos on Wednesday ordered the remand at Ikoyi Prisons of a police officer, Sergeant Kazeem Shittu, charged with shooting a passenger to death.
The accused, whose plea was not taken, was arraigned before Magistrate M.O. Olubion on a one-count charge of murder.
Olubi ordered that the accused be remanded pending when the court would get a legal advice from the state Director of Public Prosecutions.
The prosecutor, Inspector Samuel Omoyeni, told the court that the accused accidentally shot one Mr. Daniel Nigeria, a passenger in a commercial bus at the Agric Bus-Stop on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway.
He alleged that the police officer shot Nigeria after asking the bus driver to stop for a routine stop-and-search operation at about 10.20 a.m. on February 12.
Omoyeni said the alleged offence contravened Section 221 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Lagos State.
Counsel to the defendant, Mr. Titus Oddo, however, argued that the charge should have come under manslaughter, to enable the accused to apply for a bail.
Oddo said his client was on his duty post when the incident happened, adding that he shot the deceased accidentally, while trying to stop the bus driver.
The case was adjourned till March 27 for the DPP’s advice.