The shooting victim Quadri Adeyemi aka Wale Balogun at the hospital after his leg had been treated.
THE SHOOTING INCIDENT AT MILE 2.
By Dili Utomi.
I was on my way home at about 3.34pm on Wednesday, the 17th of March when I pulled out the mobile phone from my pocket and saw a missed call from a familiar number. I immediately called the number and was told that there had been a shooting around the Port Terminal Managers Limited (PTML) terminal by a Customs officer. I alighted from the bus and quickly moved to the area.
I got there to find a motley crowd gathered around, but a few other calls indicated that the victim had been moved to the New Nigerian hospital at Kirikiri.
I took a motorcycle taxi to the hospital and was able to see the doctor, the victim and some crowd there.
I interviewed several people which included the victim, the doctor and an eyewitness.
The victim’s name is Salau Quadri Adeyemi popularly known as Wale Balogun, manager with a Customs Licensed Agency called Ninimercy Nigeria Limited,and he gave his account this way “We finished the normal process of clearing the 2019 model Rav4 SUV and I moved the car in company with our client out of the terminal and into the expressway only to be flagged down by officers from the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service. I was surprised when one of the officers came up on me and started hitting me with the butt of his gun and without confrontation shot me in the leg. He and his men wanted to throw me into the back of their pick up truck, but were prevented from doing so by passers-by, they drove away with both their vehicle and the one that I was driving”. The doctor confirmed that he had treated the victim and that bullet luckily passed through the fleshy part of the leg and going out the other way without any major muscular or bone damage.
More pictures of Quadri Adeyemi on the bed.
On the treatment table.
Adeyemi’s legs after the treatment.
Adeyemi on the bed.
More pictures of Adeyemi.
I, at this juncture quickly put a call to the public relations officer of the FOU, Theophilus Duniya who sent me his Unit’s account of the incident like this “At about 1338hrs of Wednesday, 16/03/2021. One of our patrol teams intercepted a Toyota SUV. On their way to the office, some hoodlums organized themselves, blocked the driver in an attempt to obstruct the movement of the vehicle to the office. They started stoning the officers and also struggled to disarm one of them. In the pandemonium that ensued, one of the hoodlums got injured.
The team was able to demobilize the hoodlums and moved the vehicle to the office”.
The following morning, I went to speak with the officer-in-charge, roving at the FOU, AC Jack Okpabi who was about to go out on an operation to the PTML terminal because of the fact that some licensed customs agents were disrupting activities at the terminal over the incident. AC Okpabi spoke briefly with me as he stated that first and foremost, it is rather unfortunate that a human being has been injured in the course of his men carrying out their legitimate duty. He appealed to people to understand the difficult nature of their task and pray that they make it less arduous and cooperate with the Customs to make it easier for them to do their job. It will be recalled that AC Okpabi also mobilised his men and some soldiers of the Nigerian Army and successfully spoke to the demonstrators at PTML with the cooperation of the leadership of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents as violence was averted.
I should mention here that an online news medium reported on this same day that the leg of Mr. Adeyemi was purportedly amputated at the hospital. I did put in a call to Mr. Adeyemi the same day, but could not reach him.
However, the following morning, I was able to speak with him and he debunked the amputation claims and said that the Customs have been trying to reach him.
I also put a call through to AC Okpabi who also debunked the amputation report and also confirmed that his Unit was trying to take care of the medical bills at the hospital and that they are also looking to find a way to ameliorate the situation.
I can authoritatively report that as at this morning, that Mr. Niniola Abayomi, Quadri Adeyemi’s boss and Quadri himself confirmed that the Customs has taken care of the incurred hospital bills and with the promise to do more.
