Late Mrs. Bolanle Raheem.

More revelations have emerged as to how an Assistant Superintendent of Police ASP simply identified as Ayuba and attached to the Ajah Division shot and killed a pregnant lawyer, Mrs. Bolanle Raheem on Christmas Day in Ajah area of Lagos.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Police command, yesterday confirmed that the trigger-happy officer had been arrested.

A statement credited to the slain lawyer’s husband reportedly said that both he and the wife as well as some other occupants of the car were being driven by a driver and they were headed towards Ajah and needed to make a U-turn to come back to Abraham Adesanya area of Ajay when the Police officer reportedly flagged them down.

According to him, the driver was still making efforts to find a convenient place to pull up when the Police officer opened fire on them, leading to the bullet hitting the wife on the chest region and subsequent bleeding, which led to her death.

“We were headed towards Ajah to make a U-turn to come back to Abraham Adesanya. When we took the U-turn, we saw Policemen stopping some vehicles. As we approached them, they said we should stop and in the process, we heard a loud sound on my wife’s side of the window. All of a sudden, I saw blood gushing out of her chest”, the statement reportedly said.

Another source also had it that the deceased was trying to make a U-turn under Ajah Bridge when the ASP allegedly shot at her vehicle and the bullet hit her and that she was rushed to a hospital where she was later confirmed dead.

Another version of the reports also said that the deceased, alongside four children, were said to be returning from an outing in their car at about 11am on Christmas Day when the ASP tried to stop them.

Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Superintendent of Police SP, Benjamin Hundeyin, who confirmed the arrest of ASP Ayuba, also disclosed that two other Police officers, who were with the ASP, had been arrested and are currently being interrogated.

Hundeyin added that the incident was unfortunate and avoidable.

Meanwhile, several well-meaning Nigerians and civil society organisations have condemned the killing Mrs. Raheem, who was reported to have become pregnant for the first time after eight years of marriage. A civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria HURIWA condemned the killing.

National Coordinator of HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, warned the Police against attempts to shield the culprit.

This act has also been condemned by a civil society group, the Rule of Law and Advocate Center RULAAC, which called for a mental health check of police personnel.

Speaking on the sad incident, Executive Director of RULAAC, Mr. Okechukwu Nwangwuma, described the fatal shooting as “the height of inhumanity.