POLICE MAKE U-TURN, CONFIRM REINSTATEMENT, PROMOTION OF TRIGGER-HAPPY COP

The Ogun State Police Command on Wednesday made a U-turn on Mr. Gbenga Fashola, the policeman that shot a 23-year-old Ghanaian, Mr. Jubril Rasheed, on the buttocks and rendered him impotent.

The command’s Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, in an interview with PUNCH METRO confirmed that Fashola had been reinstated and promoted.

This was contrary to his earlier position on Tuesday that the command had not received signal about Fashola’s reinstatement.

“The policeman has been dismissed and I doubt what the man (the victim’s father) is saying. If he is sure of his facts, he should go and get the man’s (Fashola’s) photograph and bring it to us as a proof,” Adejobi had said.

The PPRO, however, said Fashola’s reinstatement was necessitated by the state’s Director of Public Prosecution’s advice.

“You should know that for Fashola to be reinstated and promoted, there must be reason for it. The case got to the DPP, who looked into the matter and said he had no case to answer and once a case is like this, there is nothing the police can do.” Adejobi said.

But when contacted on the phone, the state’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Akin Osibajo, did not pick his calls.

However, our correspondent sent a text message to the commissioner to find out if the DPP advised that Fashola had no case to answer. As at the time the paper went to bed, he was yet to respond to the text message.

Jubril, who condemned the police for reinstating Fashola, said the policeman’s action on May 11, 2010, at Sabo Police Station, Abeokuta, rendered him impotent and made him lose five teeth.

Recalling the incident in an interview with PUNCH METRO, Jubril said, “I was with my immediate elder brother, Faruk, on the ill-fated day when I saw two policemen and Rita in our house to arrest my brother over an alleged love relationship with Rita’s sister.

“As the policemen were taking my brother away, I called Rita to complain to her that the matter should not have been reported to the police when our parents had promised to resolve the issue.

“But as Rita was trying to explain to me, one of the policemen came to me and accused me of delaying them and disturbing the lady. But I told him that I was only discussing with her.

‘‘The policeman insisted I must follow them to the station. Rita and other people, who were around begged the policeman not to arrest me, since I did nothing wrong.

“Fashola later came and fired a gun shot into the air to scare the people away. As soon as they fled, he dragged me on a motorcycle and took me to the police station.

At the station, he knocked me on the ground, brought out his gun and fired me. Although the bullet did not hit me, pellets from the gun hit me on the chin and five of my teeth were removed.

“He fired the second shot, which pierced through my buttocks to the scrotum and the upper part of my genital organ.”

He said he was later rushed to the General Hospital, Ijaiye, where he was on admission from May 11 to July 15, 2010.

Jubril said after he was discharged from the hospital, he had been to different hospitals in Lagos and Abuja to find solution to his damaged scrotum.

“I was told there could not be a solution that I had been made impotent through the gun wounds. I was even advised to be watching pornography films and see if there could be any positive development with my organ. But I have been doing that for the past six months now and nothing has changed,” he added.
Jubril’s mother, Aishat, said he witnessed how his son was shot at the police station.
She said “As I was entering the police station, I heard the first gunshot and the second one and heard when my son cried, ‘Mummy he has killed me.’ I rushed at the policeman and wanted to grab him but he dropped the gun and ran away.

“The police have ruined my life and that of my son’s. They promised to foot the medical bill but they never did.

“We went to them after Jubril was discharged but the only thing they told us was that since Fashola had been dismissed without benefit, we should bear the cost of the medical expenses and take the incident as an act of God.”