Fuel Subsidy Protest Victim Alive

Contrary to recent media reports that policemen on Lagos Island shot and killed a protester in Obalende during the nationwide fuel subsidy protest by Nigerians, P.M.NEWS has learnt that the victim, Musa Iyali, 22, from Michika Adawama State, though sustained injury in unclear circumstances, did not die as he is currently receiving treatment at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja.

The cause of the incident that resulted in Iyali’s injury could not be ascertained but the victim’s colleagues gave a different account.

While a version had it that the victim was hit on the side of the head by a cannister of tear gas fired by the police to disperse some unruly protesters who invaded Awolowo Road from Lagos Island, another version had it that the victim was hit by a stray bullet allegedly fired by a policeman, in an attempt to disperse protesters at Suya junction, Obalende.

But police sources in all the Police Divisions that took part in the operation denied using live ammunition during the incident as they were not allowed to carry live bullets on that day.

The Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, of the Lagos State Police Command, DSP Samuel Jinadu, also corroborated this when contacted for comments over the incident. He said nobody was shot in Obalende.

He said: “The police on Lagos Island only used tear gas cannisters to disperse some youths who had attempted to break into the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Annex at Tinubu Square and some unruly protesters at Obalende.”

When P.M.NEWS visited LASUTH’s surgical emergency ward yesterday, nurses on duty confirmed that the victim was being treated there, and that he was responding to treatment after he underwent a minor surgery.

P.M.NEWS learnt that the victim, who had been rejected in about six hospitals, eventually received treatment when Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola received information about the victim and directed the LASUTH management to admit the victim and start treatment on him.

—Paul Iyoghojie