The Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions has announced that dismissed Inspector Dikko Usman, along with others suspected in the murder of the Baale of the Lotu community in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area, Chief Fatai Jubril, who was brutally killed over a land dispute, will be transferred to the state high court.
Although the DPP official did not provide a specific date to our correspondent during a conversation on Wednesday, he said the case would be filed this week.
The DPP’s decision is suspected to follow a publication by TheNigerian Metro on Wednesday titled, “Slain Lagos chief’s family blames DPP for stalling suspects’ trial.”
The family had voiced their frustration to TheNigerian Metro over the prolonged delay in the trial of the suspects, including a police inspector implicated in the shooting.
TheNigerian Metro reported in August 2024 that the DPP’s advisory implicated a police inspector, Usman, along with eight other suspects, in charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
According to the advisory and court documents obtained by TheNigerian Metro, the dismissed inspector, allegedly invited, fired the gunshot that claimed the life of the chief.
The advisory stated that the chief’s death certificate, along with eyewitness accounts, confirmed that sporadic gunshots caused his death. The gunshots were allegedly fired by one of the mobile policemen brought to the scene by one of the suspects on July 15, 2023.
The report read in part, “Facts in the duplicate case file reveal that one Chief Fatai Jubril Asalu was shot at on July 15, 2023, at Museyo community, Ajah, and died as a result of the gunshot injuries to the head as indicated in the Medical Cause of Death Certificate dated August 23, 2023, issued by one Dr. O.O. Onayemi, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
“As to which of the two Mobile Policemen fired the shots that killed the deceased, while conflicting eyewitness accounts indicate that both Dikko Usman and Nura Sanni, who were Mobile Policemen at the scene, fired gunshots, the ballistic report with Reference Number AR:4100/X/FSL/B.14/2023 dated October 5, 2023, on forensic examination of one expended casing (shell), two TO6 assorted rifles with Breach Nos. 07022939 and 07004676 with three magazines containing 78 lives of ammunition and extracted bullet fragments, both rifles reveal residue of burnt propellant, indicating they were fired sometime and their working mechanisms are complete.
“But Rifle No. 07022939, held by Sanni, displayed a malfunction of the extractor and ejector.”
According to a document obtained by TheNigerian Metro and reported on Wednesday, Inspector Dikko was scheduled to be arraigned at the magistrate court on April 24, 2024, but the family claimed the DPP stalled the proceedings by delaying the case’s transfer to the high court.
Although the DPP did not immediately respond to our correspondent’s inquiry about the cause of the delay when contacted on Tuesday, an official from the department, identified only as Gbenga, phoned after the publication to explain that the case would be transferred to the high court.
“We are taking them to the high court. We will file the information this week,” Gbenga said.
Chief Jibril was allegedly shot dead on July 15, 2023, in broad daylight in the Lotu community, reportedly in the presence of his wife, Ejiro Jubril, and their teenage daughter, during a land dispute.
