Kolade Johnson

2019

Mangoro, Lagos State.

On March 31, 2019, Kolade Johnson was watching a match between Liverpool and Tottenham in a bar called Kingston Jo, at Onipete Community, Mangoro, Lagos. It would be the last match he would watch. He was just 35 years old. Pictures of Kolade around social media show a young handsome bearded man. One of the items found in his jeans was a football betting slip. Had he betted on Liverpool to win that evening? Did any match cut his ticket that day? Something bigger and more precious than his ticket cut that day, his life.

Outside the bar, Nigeria’s notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was apprehending Folorunsho who was not sure if he was being kidnapped or arrested. The members of that squad, men, came in an unmarked vehicle. Folorunsho’s crime was having dreadlocks, a common way of profiling young men the members of that squad use. A young woman, who was with Folorunsho ran into the bar and shouted for help, leading people out of the bar, including Kolade Johnson. The policemen were beating Folorunsho who was known to the community. Their aim was to get him into the yellow bus they had parked across the express.

Were they kidnappers? Their dressing, eyewitnesses said, did not distinguish them as policemen. One of the policemen who had been in the yellow bus, Inspector Ogunyemi Olalekan, came down and shot into the air. He then pointed the gun towards Kolade and fired twice.

As he fell backwards from the impact of the bullets, Kolade’s last words were, “I don die.”

A pathologist said Kolade’s right femoral vessel which supplies blood to the lower limbs were totally separated and destroyed by bullets which penetrated his front thigh and passed through the back of his thigh.

Killer police officer: Ogunyemi Olalekan