A young man was reportedly shot by police officers near Oyun Bridge in Ilorin, Kwara State, on Wednesday afternoon following an alleged altercation between the officers and a group of young men believed to be students.
A video obtained by Newsmen showed the unconscious young man being carried by police officers and placed inside a police van shortly after the shooting.
The incident occurred along the Oyun Bridge-Fate Roundabout axis, an area where residents have repeatedly raised concerns about alleged harassment of young people by security operatives.
A resident who spoke to Newsmen on Wednesday afternoon said the incident started as an altercation between police officers who regularly patrol the area and some young men believed to be students of Kwara State Polytechnic.
“It started like a random altercation between some policemen that always patrol between Oyun Bridge and Fate Roundabout and some young guys who appeared to be students of Kwara Poly,” the resident said.
“I’m not sure if they are students but people said they are students. Everyone knows that the police always harass these students and other young people and illegally tag them as fraudsters.
“The police always use that to extort these students. Many of them always run away from the police.
“There is no time you will pass through this community that you will not witness any form of harassment from these police officers.
“So I heard that the police, in their usual ways, were trying to extort these young guys and things escalated and he was shot.
“From the video I also saw, the guy was seen unconscious but we are yet to conclude if he died. What I can confirm is that he has been rushed to a nearby hospital,” the resident said.
In the video seen by SaharaReporters, an eyewitness could be heard screaming as the injured man lay on the ground.
“They have shot this innocent man. The unfortunate police officers have shot him dead,” the eyewitness was heard saying.
The footage showed several police officers surrounding the man before carrying his unconscious body into their van.
The officers subsequently drove away from the scene, with witnesses indicating that the young man was being taken for medical attention.
Newsmen could not independently confirm the identity of the victim or establish his condition as of the time of filing this report.
Newsmen contacted the Kwara State Police Command Spokesman DSP Ejire Toun for comment on the shooting and the circumstances surrounding the incident but had not received a response as of the time of filing this report.
