The dust raised by the bloody fracas at the Oyo State-owned Trans Amusement Park Complex some few weeks back is yet to settle. The violent clash between some boys and some soldiers attached to the state security outfit “Operation Burst” led to loss of a life and property worth millions of naira. Though, the complex which was temporarily shut down after the bloody encounter has re-opened and business activities resumed, some of the victims are still counting their losses. Seyi Olusa, an ICT Engineer and owner of the bar inside Amusement Park, can’t forget in a hurry the bitter experience and his unjust incarceration for 19 days in a police cell. In this interview with Oseheye Okwuofu in Ibadan, Olusa, who was accused of snatching a rifle from a soldier and killing Kehinde Adeleke, narrates his side of the story.
Tell us exactly what happened on 26th February, 2018?
On the 26th of February, I was inside the bar when I heard some noise at the car park. Later we learnt that a young boy, Ademola Adeleke and his friends were involved in a scuffle against other boys at the car park. This degenerated into serious violence and the Operation Burst team on patrol got wind of the fight and came to the car park to investigate. On getting there, we learnt that the other group of boys, who were on the losing end of the fight, pointed at Demola and his friends as the aggressors causing trouble. Consequently, the military men ordered them to kneel down, which they refused. I think they repeated the order twice and eventually had to beat Demola and his friends with horse whips. I learnt he immediately started shouting “My father has never beaten me at home with horse whip” and went down pretending to have fainted. At that point, they told him to get up and turned their attention to the other guy with him. In between, I think Demola sent for his brother who was inside, that is Kehinde, the deceased. I was seated by my table when Kehinde ran past me. I asked why he was in such a hurry and he said ‘these are my younger ones in the car park,’ to which I told him to take it easy. Unfortunately, that was the last exchange I had with the deceased.
A few minutes after, we had gunshots which drew my attention and my friends’ towards the car park. By the time I got there, I noticed there was a soldier, and there was a man dragging the soldier from behind, he had his hands on the soldier’s gun. There was one other figure, who turned out to be Demola, on the other side of the soldier, dragging. I recognised him from what he was wearing. As I moved nearer trying to calm the situation, gun shots started going off. Another round of shots, about five or six shots, went off in all directions as a result of the struggle with the soldier. Because of this, we had to run into the building for our dear lives. We were in the building for about 5 or 6 more minutes because the gunshot continued. When the gunshots subsided, we all went out to assess the situation. As we were stepping out, Demola, the younger brother ran towards me shouting ‘Ah! Soldier has killed my elder brother; we will not accept this.’ Immediately, I withdrew into the building and called Sango Police Station to alert the DPO of the crisis in the bar. She said she was on her way out but that she would call the DCO to come and see what was going on. Not more less than two minutes after, Mr Ibrahim, the DCO called to ask what happened and I told him what I knew. I told him I had moved out of the bar and was on the field because some boys had invaded the premises, causing a lot of trouble within the bar, damaging stuffs, stealing phones and breaking all bottles. They climbed into the bar, opened the chiller and were taking wine out of the chiller. Everybody, including the bar man and customers ran to the field for their dear lives. We were on the field when the policemen called me. As I was stepping out, I saw them. I met one of my staff shouting, ‘They have abducted Mr. Bukky. He is covered in his own blood’ Mr. Bukky is a friend of mine, who has an office within the Trans Amusement Park Complex. He was seated at my table when the crisis started. Later I learnt that an Operation Burst Team came to lock up the gate, searching people. Apparently, Mr. Bukky was able to escape out of the car, although seriously injured. I saw him later that night at his office. He was seriously injured. So, we made arrangement to take him to hospital that night. Later I went to make sure all my staff were complete and that the damage was not more than what I could see. While doing that, a Hilux came in with a lot of Civil Defence personnel; one of them came out and said their commander wanted to see me. He introduced himself as Major Alkali, and the commander of the Operation Burst for the soldiers. He asked what has happened and I tried to explain to him, but as I was explaining, a call came on his phone. After a brief conversion on the phone, he said I should enter his car and then drove out to University of Ibadan. As we drove out and I was busy explaining what transpired, another call came in; he then said we should go to University College Hospital (UCH). On getting to UCH, I realised that one of the soldiers had been seriously injured by gunshot during the earlier fracas. He had been taken to U.I. Hospital, Jaja Clinic and later transferred in U.I. ambulance to U.C.H. So our mission at the UCH was to check up on him.
As we stepped out, a black Lexus jeep drove in at top speed to the emergency unit of the UCH. In a jiffy, all the doors flew open, causing everyone at the emergency unit to run for their lives. Not knowing if they would go violent, I took to my heels in the direction of the fleeing women. We all ran to the gate; at the gate, we were at the gate for about 15-20 minutes, but did not hear any gunshots. Soon after, the Operation Burst Vehicles came speeding towards the gate at the same high speed and drove out of the UCH. I had to find my way out of the UCH, that night; I couldn’t go back to the bar, so I went straight home. It was therefore a surprise to me when at the station where I had gone to find out whether my manager had reported, to find that the boys had accused me of murder, alleging that I snatched a gun from the soldier and shot their brother. The person that was accusing me was not even at the bar. But, I saw Kehinde, where I was sitting, and Taiwo was not with him, neither did Taiwo come in the car with Damola. He came in much after the incident, with he and his friends causing a lot of damage, stealing phones, drinks, damaging equipment, and generally a making menace of themselves.
Some people claim your arrest and detention is the price you have to pay for Kehinde’s death.
I was unjustly, incarcerated for 18 nights and 19 days. In fairness I understand that the police were trying to do a good job and be fair and just in their investigations, but I would have expected that they would have moved much faster and investigated not just all angles of the complainant but also listen to who was being accused and let reason prevail.
What was your experience like in the cell?
My experience within the police system was okay. They were not violent, they were not rough; it’s just the common problem with Nigeria Police stations. It was not clean and it was smelly. The condition was very, very poor and it is not somewhere I will wish for my enemy. Fortunately, they allowed my wife to give me food every day. Surprisingly, the inmates had all heard the story and figured out that it was impossible for a man to snatch a rifle from a soldier. So, they were receptive towards me and were on my side and showed pity for my unjust incarceration.
What about the damages on your bar?
For a fact, the only money that came on that day into my account was N7,000 and that was POS sales. Every cash that came in before that time was lost one way or the other to either my staff or to those boys that broke into the bar and carted away money and drinks. A lot of customers left in the fracas not paying for drinks. Essentially, I lost about N500,000 in terms of sales. In terms of equipment that were damaged, I will be talking of another N300,000. That is aside the stolen phones that we cannot quantify.
