‘My son was running late for WASSCE’ — father of schoolboy killed by police

Odunayo Alade, the father of Kehinde, a teenager tragically killed by a police officer’s stray bullet, recounted the events leading up to the incident.

He revealed that one of his sons was rushing to take the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) when the tragedy occurred.

According to Alade, he was driving along a shortcut to the main road when his son was shot. The incident happened on Tuesday in the Gbagi area of Ibadan, where a police officer opened fire on Alade’s car. The Oyo State police command stated that Alade attempted to evade arrest after being caught driving against traffic.

A video showed Alade maneuvering his car as he resisted being stopped by a team of police officers and officials from the Oyo State Traffic Management Authority (OYTMA). In response, a police corporal fired live ammunition to stop the vehicle. Unfortunately, Kehinde, who was seated in the back of the car with his twin brother, was struck in the abdomen.

Speaking to reporters, Alade insisted that he was not violating traffic rules, explaining that the shortcut he took was only a short distance from his intended route. “I was taking the children to school in the morning. At the entrance of my junction, there is just a short stretch—maybe a stone’s throw—before we would have merged onto the main road,” he said.

“To my surprise, I saw OYTMA. They came and blocked me, even hit my vehicle and I had to reverse to bypass them.

“I don’t know. I won’t say one-way because the place is a very short distance. To them, they said I followed one-way and I let them know that this is the road all the neighbourhood use. It’s a very short distance to the main junction.”

Asked why he did not stop when he was cornered by the security officials, Alade said he did not want his son to be late for the WASSCE test.

“You know how Nigerian government works. If you’re on your own, once you fall into their traps… and moreover, the elder brother of the deceased was supposed to be writing WASSCE yesterday,” he added.

“He was having 8:30am WAEC paper yesterday and if I should stop, they would have delayed the boy. That was why I had to maneuvere my way.”

Alade added that he heard the gunshot but did not stop until his deceased son began screaming in pains.

Afterwards, the deceased’s twin brother relayed that Kehinde had been hit.

“I can’t really say, it’s only God that knows the situation of things,” Alade said when asked if he thought the situation could have been averted.

He said his late son wanted to become a lawyer and had quit the science class at the beginning of the second term.

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