•Blame authority for cause of death
By Evelyn Usman
Kazeem Abonde, the Chief Superintendent of Police, CSP who was hacked to death by commercial motorcyclists, Thursday in Ajao estate area of Lagos had premonition of his death.
This was disclosed by some of his colleagues who wore forlorn looks yesterday at the command and in their various offices.
Describing Abonde’s death as a painful way to exit the earth, his colleagues said more painful was the fact that he had just eight months to complete the mandatory retirement years in the Police.
His colleagues who spoke with Saturday Vanguard on the condition of anonymity said late Abonde who was the Operations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command said he would leave Operations unit for either an administrative unit, when it would be five months to his retirement.
His proposed desire according to them was to avoid direct confrontation with men of the underworld, owing to the peculiarity of his office.
Unfortunately, his fears were confirmed before he could make the move.
Policemen from the Operations Department had stormed Ajao estate to raid some criminal hideouts and impound motorcycles plying the restricted areas on Thursday.
But they got more than they bargained as the motorbike riders dared them by at a dung in their way.
A heated argument which degenerated into violence occurred , during which the commercial motorcyclists in their number, descended on the policemen.
READ ALSO: Policeman killed, scores wounded as Okada riders go on rampage in Lagos
Abonde as gathered only went to mediate, when one of the riders hit him with an iron rod on the head. Attempt to rush him to a nearby hospital failed as the riders besieged the hospital, to prevent him from being treated. They dragged him out and pummeled him to death. Other policemen fled the scene. Not done, the okada riders destroyed the police patrol van the policemen came in.
His death sparked up anger from both Rank an Files and officers of the Lagos State Police Command, as they blamed Police authorities for the cause of the death of Abonde.
Some of them said those who went for the raid were directed not to fire a shot in the process of the raid.
One of them said, “Look at how they just killed a senior police officer like a fowl, simply because they said they should not use their weapons. Under such circumstance, they were free to use their arms according to our code.
Again, how could they have sent few policemen to such volatile area without enough weapons like tear gas cannisters and hot water canon?”.
Another said, “ he does saw this coming. He was contemplating on leaving OPs department by December. He told some of us that he would avoid every thing that had to do with operation that period so that he would leave the Police without a scare. But his worst fear happened before he could make that move”.
Saturday Vanguard gathered that Thursday’s incident was not the first time commercial motorcyclists would attack policemen in that area. A few years ago, a similar incident in which police vehicles were destroyed occurred.
Late CSP Abonde was born on January 15, 1967. He hailed from Oba Ora Local Government Area of Oyo state .
He was enlisted into the Nigeria Police on June 15, 1987 and was promoted to the rank of CSP on June 20, 2019 and was expected to retire on June 15, 2022.
Late Abonde had his LLB from the Lagos State University in 2014. He was called to Bar in 2016 and proceeded for his Masters in Law in 2019, at the Lagos State University.
He had served in different capacities in the Police , some of which were :
Operations Officer 1, Lagos State Police Command;’ Divisional Police Officer Ilemba Hausa, Lagos, O/C Human Right, Area G Command, Ogba, Divisional Crime Officer, Satellite division, Zone 2 command headquarters, Onikan Lagos , Police College Ikeja and Ondo state Police command, Ondo State.
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