by Chinwe Okafor

Should the NDLEA be armed in the first place?

Femi Aremu, a bricklayer in Lagos was reportedly killed by the men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in Lagos.

Aremu was allegedly killed by a stray bullet on Tuesday while working at a shop belonging to one Ganiyat Lateef at Ikota Housing Estate.

According to reports by Punch Newspapers, the NDLEA officers from Ikeja came at about 12.40pm on the fateful day to arrest one Anuwa Bello, who was said to be a suspected cannabis dealer in the area.

Apparently, some hoodlums in the community had barricaded the streets to prevent the NDLEA officers from leaving with the suspect.

Upon sensing a mob attack, the NDLEA men were said to have fired some shots into the air to scare the mob and one of the bullets hit Aremu and he died instantly.

The spokesperson for the NDLEA, Mitchell Ofoyeju, denied the killing, but said that the agency would investigate the allegation.

He said, “Our men went on an official assignment to the area. We received information on one Anuwa Bello. When we got to Bello’s residence, we conducted a search and recovered 14.6 kilogrammes of cannabis.

“On our way back to the office with the suspect, some hoodlums barricaded the road in order to prevent our men from leaving with the suspect. In the face of such daring confrontation, our men were left with no choice but to fire some shots into the air to disperse the hoodlums.

“This is not the first time our men will be witnessing such resistance in the area. The suspect is a notorious cannabis dealer and he will be charged to court. On the allegation of the killing, it was the following day that some people, who claimed to be members of the Oodua People’s Congress, came to the office to complain that they found a dead body after our men had left the area.

“We are however, investigating the allegation of the residents.”