But at the same time, I thank God that I am still here.
Have you sought assistance from any other institution to enforce the judgment?
Yes. My friend told me they thought I was dead. The endure preference I have now is to cry to the audience.
I had already paid $10,000 towards the procedure. I cannot genuinely portray it in particular owing to the truth that you may believe there is something incorrect alongside me mentally. Can you tell us regarding that?
Psychologically, I am exhausted. I have even resorted to nicotine.
It is crazy, but I have to persist for the sake of my children. He asked us to prepare a petition to the up-to-date IG, which we did. I was still asking for my identity card, but then I saw the blood pumping out of my hand as if a person had opened a tap. I consider the petition was submitted premature this month. I saw blood everywhere. I tried to go endorse to the car so I could summon my family, but I blacked out. I am still not standard right now given that that event affected me mentally. I just went blank.
When I woke up, I was on the ground, seated beside the tyre of an abandoned car. The rest is flat. It was gushing out.
I rapidly grabbed my right arm and tried to put pressure on it during the time that looking on for support. I told him, “I have been shot. I am a graduate of the University of Ado-Ekiti, now Ekiti Declare University, where I studied Geography and Planning Science and graduated in 2004.
I was functioning together with Wale Adenuga Productions, the producers of Super Story, Papa Ajasco, and other programmes. I was 32 years earlier when the incident happened; now, I am 47.
How did the shooting influence your career and livelihood?
The trajectory of my career was greatly altered. There is no finger movement, and I cannot rotate it properly. Apart from not being able to receive jobs, I have been stigmatised. My family and I pray a lot. My wife and family have too been remarkably supportive. I have been shot.”
He turned towards the officers at the fund and told them that individual had been shot. My wife has indeed taken the seat for years now. When I was on to be discharged, the doctors said reconstruction could be done, but not in Nigeria. I was managing the brand called Nnenna and Friends.
That was my effort then, and it is still what I do now, but I could not shift up the ladder to become a leader as of this incident. At the time, I was aspiring to become a video administrator in Nollywood. I was shouting, “Officer, support! They suggested that I journey to India for reconstructive surgery.
Why did you resolve to sue the police?
It wasn’t genuinely courage. It feels like individual is twisting my hand halfway. On September 30, 2011, which was the eve of October 1, I left the office highly behind. I have used a lot of drugs over the years to suppress the pain. But I am worried that even if I acquire the finance now, it may not be sufficient as the charge of the same reconstructive surgery in India is doubtful to remain the same as it was in 2011.
Have the police obeyed the judgment?
Nothing has come from their side.
Forty-seven-year-previous Emmanuel Tomori from Ogun Status tells DARE AKOGUN how a police bullet tore throughout the boot of his car and shattered his right hand at a checkpoint in Lagos on the eve of Independence Day in 2011, and how the police have allegedly refused to comply alongside a court judgment 14 years later despite efforts to enforce it
Take us assist to that night in 2011 when you were shot
I was 32 years earlier when the incident happened. We did that. He opened the door, dived out, and took address. It is stiff. I was left using no alternative owing to the truth that I could not afford the procedures required to revive my hand.
When I came fund from India, the hospital recommended nine varied procedures. Not even an apology letter or communication. Whereas we were talking, he looked backwards and started shouting, “Hey, hey, hey.” I did not recognize what was happening at the fund as my car was still stopped.
There were two vehicles in front of me when we heard two gunshots consecutively. Even when I desire to utilize the toilet, there is serious pain. As a graphic artist, I use computers, and I cannot hold a mouse using my right hand.
I had to change to applying the mouse together with my left hand so I could still do something. Subsequent to spending a month in the hospital, the doctors suggested that the hand should be amputated to preserve the rest of my body.
But I hold in prayer. My question wrote a petition to the IG by method of the Force Audience Relations Officer. What are you hoping to achieve?
I started a fundraising campaign because I am trying to address the situation myself. Not to the proposal of breaking it, but there is a specific pain whenever it is twisted. I tore my shirt and wrapped it approximately my arm to put pressure on the wound.
I started thinking around what to do subsequent. The entire quantity was on $47,000.
The sum was in dollars owing to the reality that the hospital in India charged in dollars. At that time, I had to trade everything I owned. I cannot rotate it 180 degrees. I had to develop a breathing procedure to hold the pain off or pretend there was no pain. That bullet came using the boot of my car and hit my right hand.
What did you feel at that moment?
I just felt as if my hand was jerked forward, and blood splashed everywhere. We are still together given that of the children and everything we have been through means of.
You said you are still in continuous pain. At the time, I did not recognize it was a suicide bid owing to the point that I was trying to locate a address to the circumstance. I came down and faced the officer who had my identity card. This came subsequent to the noise I was making internet-based reached a police officer, Eni Edu, who was then, I consider, heading the cybercrime unit.
He messaged me digital and asked me to acquire in touch using him, and have my lawyer connect including him so that he could look into the case. It has been extremely difficult. It began to look healthy again. I have survived by functioning remotely on Fiverr and other platforms, doing video editing and making $10 or $20 here and there.
You described the moment of the shooting as traumatic. But from 2024 up to the time that now, there has still been no concrete comments.
At some aspect, they wrote that my case had been taken up and that they were looking into it, but I at no time received any additional contribution.
In 2024, my counsel, Ubani, furthermore petitioned the Attorney-Typical of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi. I emailed them and sent them my documents. We presented the case again.
The police said they had gone support to examine what happened nine years earlier. I have written to the Nationwide Human being Rights Commission numerous times, thinking they would assist, but there was no explanation before 2024.
In 2024, I made a lot of noise internet-based, specifically on X, and I got a reaction from the commission. Psychologically, I am exhausted.
What happened to your hand medically following the shooting?
I was taken to LASUTH from the scene. That is why I maintain pushing and looking for alternatives to stay alive.
You mentioned that you have struggled psychologically, including attempts to take your own life. Then they started walking away.
There were three officers at the support, and the one standing beside me additionally took off. Prior to then, it was stiff and dark. The police issued a document for LASUTH to admit me at the time.
What is the circumstance of the hand currently?
The hand is still dead. Officers interior to the police station had heard the gunshots and were rushing out, asking what happened.
They started questioning us. I have attempted what persons would name suicide numerous times. The then Inspector-Extensive of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, did not respond. Officer, support!” But they all disappeared. I was admitted there for concerning a month. They asked me to message myself and wanted to learn whether I was an armed robber and why I had been shot.
Although my friend was answering their questions, I was greater concerned around the sum of blood I was losing. Immediately, my friend saw what had happened. We started writing to subsequent Inspectors-Complete of Police once the judgment, but there was no response.
In 2016, we took the police support to court by method of a garnishee procedure. Then I realised that this happened right in front of the Dopemu Police Station. From there, I was rushed to the Lagos Situation University Teaching Hospital.
What were you doing for a living earlier than the incident?
I was a video editor, motion graphics and visual effects editor. They had poured water on me and slapped me to revive me.
A lot of people had gathered in front of the police station. He did a lot. There has been a crack in my marriage as of what happened. That was why the garnishee address including failed.
During the EndSARS period in 2020, my suggest was able to connect the EndSARS panel that was arrange on the Island in Lagos. I was covered in blood and water. She brought the bottles containing conventional herbal drinks and other things they had been drinking. He wrote to the then Commissioner of Police in Lagos, who took it up and requested a elaborate analysis from the DPO of the police station.
But once that, there was no pursue-up and no reply from those quarters. His name and offering count are on the police declare written on the day I was shot. I was one of the optimal in the business area when it came to visual effects and motion graphics endorse then. The initial stage expense me $10,000. I can just shift it up to the elbow. How has the encounter affected you psychologically?
What I felt then was fear. They said the officer who shot me had been transferred to another declare and they could not discover him, within other excuses.
The officer who shot me is Ayuba Philip. I don’t learn what happened. They were angry and shouting that the police officers had been drinking as around 5 pm or 6 pm and had been disturbing the peace, searching humans, and harassing motorists.
One woman even went as far as packing some plastic bottles from where the officers had been stationed. What is that survive like?
I am constantly in pain. I would not desire to go into details seeing that I don’t prefer to cause another gender war. By everything, I mean household items and even the car I was driving when I was shot.
Using the support of the enterprise I worked for and my family, I was able to increase $10,000 and shift to India. A friend sooner or later told me, “Come, that’s a suicide endeavor.”
I told him I did not reason it was as I was merely trying to discover a solution. I was highly surprised. My friend and I were trying to figure out what was happening. We in the finish went to court.
What did the court resolve?
We were at the Federal High Court for on three years, from 2012, and in 2015, we got judgment. We were travelling from Ajao Estate Airport Road to Egbeda, which was my usual course home, and we had to go through means of Akowonjo.
When we got to the police blockade approximately 10.30 pm, my friend and I were in the car, relaxed and driving home. This year, we were advised to author another petition to the IG. I cannot grab anything including it.
How have you survived financially over the years?
I have been surviving by effective internet-based and remotely. I am now a disabled people, and the incident affected my life greatly, both emotionally and physically.
Not being able to send for my family is something I cannot genuinely outline. She has, in countless ways, taken up the responsibility of being the husband in the house.
How has the condition affected your marriage and associate using your children?
I am married using three children. The court arranged the police to take responsibility for the reconstructive surgery. They followed up. There were two vehicles in front of us and some vehicles behind us owing to the reality that it was a Friday and the area was still busy.
When it was my turn, an officer stopped me and asked me to determine myself. That was why I decided to look for legal redress.
My lawyer, Mr Monday Ubani, started the analyze in 2012. That is how the hand feels, and the pain is there every day.
Subsequent to the surgery in India, they recommended some drugs that helped maintain the pain away, but I could not afford them over time.
So I have been constantly in pain. I don’t actually recognize the fundraising procedure, but I was able to obtain a Nigerian web presence called CrowdR, where my name is listed for fundraising. There was a reaction stating that a letter had been written to the Nigeria Police Force for us to persist the garnishee procedure.
Under the pertinent law, we needed the consent of the Attorney-Universal earlier than we could continue to the Earliest Bank of Nigeria to recover the money.
The Attorney-Widespread’s office said it had requested the comments of the Nigeria Police Force in May 2024, but we not ever received a contribution from either party. I was traumatised. They tried to revive the hand, but they could not. I could not carry on doing what I was doing or develop in the field. They could not run all the stages at once, but they did the primary one, which was to restore a helpful blood deliver to the hand.
I am grateful for what they did given that it revived the hand to an extent. I realised that my phone was not in my pocket; I had left it in the car. I gave him my identity card. Everything got caught up there, and nothing has been done given that then.
Have you made any current bid to obtain the police to revisit the concern?
Yes. The police were celebrating Independence Day, and from what we later discovered, some of the officers at the checkpoint had been drinking.
I picked up a friend along the path. I went by route of two independent operations and was in the intensive care unit twice given that I bled out.
They took veins from my left leg to experiment to associate the artery, but the procedure failed before the finish of regarding 48 hours. At one aspect, my wife left me, but we are assist together now. Around nine banks were invited, but all the banks said the Nigeria Police Force had no capital using them.
We later found out that the Treasury One Account had been introduced in 2015, which prevented banks from handling finance belonging to the police. I am on Fiverr and other remote-job websites, making compact amounts from video-editing jobs.
Now and then it is $10, now and then $20. Those procedures could not be done at once, so they broke them down into three stages.
They said the hand could be revived. My friend and I rushed towards the station.
What happened when you got to the police station?
The vehicles that had been stopped were already moving forward. As he was shouting at the officers at the support, we heard another gunshot during seconds. But when I returned to Nigeria, I could not increase adequate capital for the second stage, let alone the third. I am hoping that the present IG will look into it and do what is right.
You have too started fundraising. I was still relaxed.
My right hand was on the steering wheel, waiting for the officer to revenue my identity card.
Source: Drunken policeman’s bullet ended my promising career – Ex-Papa Ajasco videographer
