The coroner presiding over the inquest of Jumoke Oyeleke, who was killed during last year’s Yoruba Nation rally in Lagos, has blamed the police for her death.

Ms Jumoke was killed on July 3, 2021, when the police shot sporadically at demonstrators during a Yoruba Nation rally at the Ojota area of Lagos.

The coroner, Mukaila Fadeyi, on Monday, at the Magistrate Court in Ogba, Lagos, said “the only logical conclusion is that the deceased died from a weapon by the Nigerian police.”

The coroner told the public that the deceased and her family “deserve our sympathy.”

Mr Fadeyi said there is a need for training, retraining and reorientation of the police on the rights of citizens to hold protests, especially in a democratic country.

He asked the Inspector General of Police to fish out the bad eggs among the operatives and to “ensure that they are brought to book to forestall further accidental killings.”

He recommended that the federal government compensate the family of the deceased and advised the police authorities to provide mental and medical checkups to their officers to determine their suitability to bear arms. 

The coroner emphasised that police deployed to protest grounds should not be given live bullets.

“The commissioner for justice should be mandated by the state government to forward the recommendations to the relevant authority for implementation.

“There is a need for the state to fund the activities of the coroner’s Act 2015, in order to stem unwarranted and unlawful killings in the state and to bring to book the perpetrators,” Mr Fadeyi said.

However, the legal counsel representing the Oyeleke family, Taiwo Olawanle, said that the verdict means that “there is hope for the ordinary masses.”

Mr Olawanle insisted that the culprit that fired the shot should be fished out by the police.