Date: 2012-01-05

Muyideen Mustapha who was allegedly killed by the Police during the protest against the removal of oil subsidy in Ilorin was yesterday buried amidst sorrow even as the state police said not less than eight people were arrested as the protest entered its third day in the state’s capital.

Buried at the Muslim cemetery, Ilorin, Muyideen, 23, was a graduate of Army Day Secondary School, Maitama, Abuja who completed his computer training last week Saturday, was said to have met his death while at the post office roundabout in an attempt to buy a handset.

The Kwara State Police Commissioner, Mr. Peter Gana, said those found on the streets of Ilorin were hoodlums hiding under the guise of protest against subsidy removal and hijacked the protest to commit atrocities and inflict harm on people.

But the immediate past chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Emmanuel Ayeoribe, disagreed with the CP as he said that the police killed Mustapha Opobiyi unjustly.

Comrade Ayeoribe, who said that the NLC would immortalize the 23-year-old man, added that the labour union would start coordinated protests with picketing and other actions when the NLC boss in the state returned from the NEC meeting in Abuja.

Though as at the time of filling this report the identity of the second allegedly killed was yet to be ascertained but the situation became tensed as the youths came out in large number s to continue the protest but were met with direct confrontation by the police.

Protesters, who again made bonfires on major streets of Ilorin like Sabo Line, Murtala Mohammed Road, Maraba, Amilengbe and Opo Malu among other areas of the city yesterday, confronted security men who were shooting guns and tear gas to disperse them with stones and bottles.

For hours the whole area stood still as armoured van and police patrol vans including heads of state’s police CID took control of the situation.

The Kwara police boss said the hoodlums vandalized vehicles, burnt a commercial bank’s bullion van, damaged fuel pumps of filling stations, and snatched innocent people’s phones, adding that the hoodlums had the intention of creating anarchy in the state.