A 14-year-old, tennis player, Angel Mcleod, has demanded that the trigger-happy policeman who shot her mother, Beauty Mcleod, dead should be ‘killed immediately’, saying he has taken away her joy.
Angel said she had been struggling to come out of the shock since the news of her mother’s death was broken to her.
Beauty, who was from Anambra State, and Angel had lodged in the hotel in the afternoon of the fateful day on their arrival from Accra, Ghana, where the daughter had gone for a tournament.Beauty, also a tennis player, was allegedly shot on Sunday, October 25, by one Corporal Joseph Aminu, who was attached to the Emperor’s Guest House on Balarabe Musa Crescent, Victoria Island, Lagos.
It was learnt that the 37-year-old woman was going outside the hotel around 10pm to meet a friend, Betsy Garrett, who was waiting at the car park, when the security guard challenged her, claiming that she had been going out repeatedly.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the guard called Aminu to intervene in the matter and it degenerated into an altercation between the policeman and the woman.
“I was told the security guard complained that my mum kept coming in and out and he got angry and then he called the policeman. The policeman slapped my mum and she had to retaliate with a stone. He eventually shot her in the leg and she started losing a lot of blood.
“I am just trying not to remember it (mother’s death). Any time I remember it, my spirit goes down. He (Aminu) does not deserve to be alive. He should be killed immediately. He has taken away my joy and everything I have in my life,” Angel said.
Her corpse was said to have been deposited at the Marina General Hospital, Lagos Island for autopsy.
Garrett, who also called for Aminu’s execution, said her friend might not have died if she was rescued on time. She lamented that after Aminu had shot Beauty in the leg, he left her to bleed and writhe in pain for about an hour before he permited rescuers to take her to St Nicholas Hospital, where she died.
Speaking with our correspondent on Saturday, Garrett, recounted the incident and how the corporal frustrated efforts to save her friend’s life.
She said, “She called me that night that she was shopping at 1004. I went to pick her there, dropped her at the hotel and waited for her at the car park. On coming out of her hotel room, the policeman ran after her. He complained that she was coming in and out and that she was disturbing them (he and others) from sleeping.
“He ran after her to where I was and attacked her. I separated them and asked what the problem was but neither of them told me. He corked the gun and I pleaded with him to drop it. Immediately he did, he gave her a heavy blow in the face. She ran towards the other direction, picked a stone and threw it at him. He pulled the gun and shot her in the leg.
“After she fell, he pointed the gun at me. I screamed and begged him to leave me. I ran, calling people to come and see how they could disarm him so that I could take my friend to the hospital. About four persons came. He pointed the gun at them and everybody ran away. It was after about 60 minutes that he allowed me to take her inside the car and he sat with me while I took her to the hospital.
“On our way, he stopped me and got down. It was shortly after I took her to the hospital that she died. The police must compensate her family and ensure that the policeman is killed too; he does not deserve to live.”
The deceased’s brother, Mr. Callistus Nwankwo, said he was not pleased with the way the matter was being handled by the police.
He said, “The police are not handling the case properly. When we went to the Maroko Police Station, where we learnt that the policeman was attached to, the DPO told us that the policeman was from the command headquarters in Ikeja. He said the man was not supposed to have been given a gun.”
Nwankwo added that he was looking up to the government and well-meaning Nigerians to assist in the upbringing of the deceased’s daughter.
The Lagos State Police spokesperson, DSP Joe Offor, said Aminu had been arrested and was being investigated at the State Department of Criminal Investigation, Yaba, adding that the outcome of the investigation would determine whether he would be charged to court or not.
He said, “The suspect was attached to Mounted Troop, state headquarters. He is now at the SDCI. The case has to be investigated. We have to be sure of what led to the incident. The outcome of the investigation will determine whether the man will be charged to court or not.”
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