South African police officers to face trial for killing Nigerian

Some South African police officers in the coming weeks will be arraigned for allegedly killing a 25-year-old Nigerian, Ibrahim Olalekan-Badmus, in 2017.  

The Nigerian Mission in South Africa in an interview today said that the officers were implicated in the killing. The Nigeria’s Consul General in South Africa, Godwin Adama, said through a telephone from Johannesburg that the South African authority had confirmed that

investigation into the murder case was almost concluded.

“Badmus, a native of Lagos was brutally murdered by the South African Police on Oct. 10, 2017 at vanderbidjk park, South Africa. Police officers implicated in the murder will be charged to the High court any moment from now,” he said.  

Police officers were alleged to have stormed the home of Badmus, an undergraduate at Vaal University of Technology in Vanderbijlpark in South Africa, with claims that he was trafficking drugs. However, when the police searched his home, they could not find any drug in it. They allegedly asked the deceased for money and when he could not give them money, they handcuffed him and used excessive pepper spray on him. He passed out and died due to suffocation  Adama said that the case was classified as high profile because of the tension generated by the development as some Nigerians who had confrontation with the police almost took laws into their hands.  

The Consul General said that on hearing of the development immediately rushed to the scene where he interfaced with the aggrieved Nigerians and the police to calm frayed nerves.

“I led a delegation from the mission to visit the scene on receipt of the information. When we arrived at the scene, the place was tensed up because Nigerians there were not happy. We immediately met with the Station Commander in the area with some selected Nigerians. The police assured that a thorough investigation would be carried out and that the culprit would be brought to book,” he said.

He said that the authority arrested the police officers that perpetrated the crime and commenced investigation. Adama said that the mission had followed up the case and it was clear that investigating authorities had done a very thorough job as promised. He stressed that the authorities had said that the suspects would be charged to court any moment from now.  

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, had expressed worry over the killings of Nigerians in South Africa. Dabiri-Erewa stated that no fewer than 117 Nigerians were extra-judicially killed in South Africa between 2013 and 2018 for one flimsy reason or the other.