Nigeria arrests 2 cops after killing of youth

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) - Nigerian police on Tuesday said two cops, who allegedly shot dead a youth in the commercial capital Lagos on Sunday, have been arrested.

Inspector Ogunyemi Olalekan and Sergeant Godwin Orji, both attached to the police Anti-Cultism Squad, have been arrested and may be prosecuted after a probe into the incident, according to a statement by Lagos police spokesman Bala Elkanah.

Johnson had died from a “stray” bullet fired by the squad as he was heading to watch a football match in his neighborhood on Sunday evening, witnesses and family members said.

The death -- coming on the heels of accusations of extrajudicial killings and torture against police special squads -- has sparked a fresh nationwide outrage and deafening calls for the special crimes’ squads to be scrapped.

The police insisted the issue would be thoroughly investigated.

“[The cops] will be subjected to internal disciplinary procedures, and may be prosecuted in conventional court if implicated by ongoing investigation,” Elkanah said.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police Lagos State, CP Zubairu Muazu, called for calm, assuring “justice will prevail in the case”.