Following incessant killings of youth in the Ibadan area of Oyo State allegedly by the operatives of the State Security Network, codenamed Amotekun, hundreds of aggrieved youth took to the streets of the state capital on Wednesday, protesting the killings.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that they were protesting the killing of a 14-year-old boy, Peter Okafor, in the early hours of Wednesday around Uncle Joe area of Mokola in Ibadan, allegedly by Amotekun officials.
NAN gathered that the victim, an apprentice with a printing press in Mokola, was shot dead.
A similar incident was recorded in Oke-Ado area of Ibadan on July 21, where two youth were allegedly killed by Amotekun corps, while celebrating the Eid-el Kabir festival.
A witness, who requested not to be named, told NAN that immediately the boy sighted the Amotekun operatives in the early hours of Wednesday, patrolling the area, he started running to escape.
“I don’t know what he did to them to warrant his running, but they shot him in the head and he died instantly,” the witness told NAN.
NAN further reports that immediately the information got to the youth in the area, they mobilised themselves and started making bonfires on the road, thus causing traffic gridlock around Mokola area.
The protesters later moved to the state Secretariat with the corpse of the victim, and prevented both human and vehicular movements around the main gate.
Though Sunday Odukoya, the Executive Assistant on Security to the Governor, made frantic efforts to appease the protesters, they insisted that they must see Governor Seyi Makinde.
When contacted, Adewale Osifeso, the state Command’s Police Public Relations Officer, said he was at the scene of the incident.
“I am at the scene of the incident at the moment now. I will reach out to you as soon as I get to the office, please,” Mr Osifeso told NAN.
NAN
