Afọlábí Kazeem, an officer in the Amọtẹkun Corps, has been indefinitely dismissed and arraigned for prosecution, following his responsibility for taking the life of a 23-year old man at Mokola, Ìbàdàn.
Colonel Olayanju Olayinka (retd.), the Corp Commandant said the corp responded to a distress call of an ongoing robbery operation at Total Filling Station, Mokola, around 10 pm on Wednesday, 13th of January but upon their arrival, what they met was a crowd filled with hoodlums and not armed robbers.
He said that “At about 10 PM yesterday, January 13, 2021, our operatives, led by Team Leader George Idowu, got an alert of an armed robbery operation at Total Filling Station, Mokola. He and his team of seven members got a distress call. The team responded to the call, but as they arrived there, it turned out that it was not an armed robbery operation, though a crowd was gathered. The Team Leader, sensing no immediate danger from the crowd, went in to speak with the station manager. While he was with the manager, he heard a gunshot.
As it turned out, one of his team members, Afolabi Kazeem, felt sufficiently threatened by the crowd, which included hoodlums armed with cutlasses and other dangerous weapons, to open fire, supposedly to scare them off. Unfortunately, his shot struck one Mr Tosin Thomas, 23, and he eventually died.”
According to Colonel Olayinka, the officer has been dismissed and transferred to the police force for prosecution.
He noted, “The Corps has found that Afolabi Kazeem with Ammunition Number AM031849 acted outside the Amotekun Corps’ protocols. For this reason, he has been summarily dismissed from the Corps and handed over to the police for prosecution. Also, his Team leader, George Idowu, is being thoroughly investigated and will face all necessary sanctions.”
He assured the public of the Corps capacity of securing the state and prosecuting members of the corp found erring and expressed deep sadness at the death of the innocent young man.
According to him, “We want to reassure members of the public of our internal mechanisms for dealing with erring officers. We will continue to train and retrain our officers on best practices and rules of engagement.”
“The Corps deeply regrets the loss to the Thomas family, and we are already in touch with the family.”
