A Nigerian footballer, Tiyamu Kazeem, who plays for Remo Stars Football Club, has been allegedly killed by an operative of the Special Anti – Robbery Squad (SARS) in Sagamu, Ogun State.
Oladimeji Oshode, the club’s media manager, in a statement on Saturday confirmed the incident narrating that Kazeem was driving along Sagamu area with his teammate, Sanni Abubakar.
He said: “According to an eyewitness, he claimed that the SARS officer stopped the footballer to label him a Yahoo Boy.
“The SARS officer stopped Tiyamiyu Kazeem insisting that he was a Yahoo Boy; he brought out his identity card to identify himself as a player of Remo Stars FC but the officer insisted on taking him to the nearest police station in Sagamu.
“Tiyamiyu and Sanni obliged, followed the SARS officers, only for them to notice that they were driving towards Sagamu-Abeokuta Expressway. Then the guys questioned to know where the SARS officers were taking them to, but this prompted them to stop the car and push him (Tiyamiyu) out of the car, and a vehicle knocked him down.”
Oshode added that Kazeem was immediately rushed to Fakoya Hospital in Sagamu, where he was pronounced dead.
Meanwhile, the spokesman of the State Police Command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a statement said the late footballer was knocked down by a hit-and-run driver, while trying to escape after he had been arrested.
Oyeyemi said the deceased was arrested for wearing a military cap and not on the suspicion of being an internet fraudster.
He pointed out that the operative who arrested the deceased was an inspector attached to the Zonal Intervention Squad (ZIS), Obada, and not a SARS operative.
He said: “Somebody gave the policeman an information that the deceased usually put on military wears and often oppressed people with it. He saw the boy wearing military cap and he arrested him and took him into his vehicle,” he said.
“On their way to Abeokuta, his vehicle developed mechanical fault. He (policeman) parked and tried to rectify it. In the process, the suspect who was not handcuffed, jumped out of the vehicle and took to his heels. While crossing the road, an oncoming vehicle crushed him to death along the expressway. The vehicle did not stop.”
The PPRO stated that the operative had been taken into custody at Owode-Egba division and would be transferred to the police headquarters for further investigation.
