In the late hours of Tuesday, a suspected hit-and-run driver on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is said to have killed Inspector Bulus Joel, a member of the Nigeria Police Force.
The 43-year-old inspector was seriously injured in an accident involving a car on Tuesday night at approximately 11:55 p.m. on the expressway, according to information obtained by PUNCH Metro on Thursday from an eyewitness.
Our correspondent was informed by an unidentified eyewitness that the deceased victim and his fellow officers were on a normal patrol when they noticed traffic congestion in the corridor. The witness requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the disaster.
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The officer was knocked to the ground by a car who hurriedly ran off his line while attempting to reduce traffic congestion on the route.
“It was as if the driver intentionally knocked down the officer because he didn’t stop even after realizing that he had hit a police officer,” the witness stated.
The fact that none of the other drivers attempted to chase him astounds me as well. For medical care, he was brought to the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital in Sagamu.
However, our correspondent has learned that an on-duty physician has confirmed Inspector Joel’s death.
Odutola Omolola, the state police public relations officer, confirmed the incident to PUNCH Metro on Thursday. She criticized other drivers for not doing more to stop the suspect from fleeing and called the policeman’s killing “callous.”
“Policemen are human,” she remarked. They have family members as well. Did no one witness the motorist running down an on-duty police officer who was trying to slow down traffic? Social media is silent. There are no calls coming in to police headquarters.
“There were no photos or videos taken by any of the other drivers that were present. Not a single one of the drivers the policeman was assisting tried to pull over the car.
Are police officers not people? We also have family, don’t we? Not even the hit-and-run driver could be pursued.
But Odutola disclosed that the police officer’s body had been placed in the teaching hospital morgue.
PUNK Inspector Joel was the third police officer to be slain in four years by a hit-and-run vehicle, according to Metro.
A suspected hit-and-run driver killed an Assistant Superintendent of Police working for the Ondo State Police Command last year.
In 2020, another accused hit-and-run motorist in Lagos is said to have killed a police officer who was headed back to his post.