A pregnant woman is said to have died in Waterside Local Government Area of Ogun State following a delay by policemen enforcing the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
The incident led to a protest on Thursday in the area.
One of the policemen was accused of ‘mistakenly’ hitting the victim while she was on her way to Ita-Otu General Hospital, Ibiade for medical care, Premium Times reports on Friday.
The protesters stormed Abigi Divisional Police Headquarters, claiming the victim would have survived “if she was not delayed by the police officers”, but the police denied the allegation.
The online news platform quoted a woman who said Waidat Adedeji, who was seven months pregnant, woke up around 6 am bleeding.
Her husband got a ‘Man O War’ member to join them on a motocycle so he could appeal to police officers at checkpoints.
The deceased’s cousin, Oduroye Akintayo, was quoted saying they were stopped by officers at Sore River checkpoint while Mrs Adedeji continued bleeding.
“Not happy with the delay, the man (Man O War) driving the motorcycle had ‘tough talks’ and disagreement with the officers condemning them for not considering the ‘dying’ woman. In the process, an officer in anger tried to hit his torch light on the bikeman. Unable to dodge, the torch light was mistakenly smashed on the pregnant woman,” said Akintayo.
The woman was said to have died before they got to the hospital.
Community leaders, however, intervened after youths took the corpse to the Abigi Divisional Police Headquarters.
Tribune Online reportedly quoted police spokesperson in Ogun saying the police were not responsible for the death.
“They were stopped and interrogated on why they did not obey the sit at home order. They informed the police that the woman was being conveyed to hospital for delivery, and having noticed that the woman was in pains, our men allowed them to proceed,” the spokesperson said.
