Tina Ezekwe

2020

Iyana-Oworo, Lagos State.

A white van full of passengers was heading out of Berger, but the police won’t let them. It was late, they were breaking the lockdown curfew rules. A policeman asked the driver for 200 naira bribe, he offered 100 naira. The policeman shot him. He started bleeding and those present ran to rescue him.

Amidst the chaos, Tina Ezekwe, a 17 year old girl was preparing to close her mother’s shop nearby. Two police officers Oguntoba Olamigoke and Theophilus Otobo reportedly kept shooting to dispel the crowd. A stray bullet hit Tina and pierced through her left thigh. In a video recorded by an eyewitness, more chaos ensued and she was taken to a hospital in Gbagada. One of the policemen later commented that they should be happy she wasn’t dead. He was no stranger to the family. He was in the habit of intimidating Tina and her mother at the shop. Sometimes he would direct his torch at them, kick their wares away. 

The bus driver survived. Tina, however, died May 28, two days after the shooting. She was an SS3 student of Bariga primary school with a dream of becoming a medical doctor. In a video, Tina’s mother sits, dejected, “Who will I call now? Who will I call now?”

Killer police officers: Oguntoba Olamigoke and Theophilus Otobo