Remo Stars Football Club has accused an officer of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Ogun of causing the death of one of its players, Tiyamu Kazeem, popularly known as Kaka, after allegedly pushing him from their van onto an oncoming vehicle.
In a statement, the club’s spokesman, Dimeji Oshode, said the incident occurred on Saturday along Sagamu while Kazeem was in his car with one of his teammates, Sanni Abubakar.
According to the statement, several SARS officers flagged down the footballer and labelled him an internet fraudster locally called Yahoo boy and insisted on taking him to a nearby police station.
“The SARS officers stopped Tiyamiyu Kazeem insisting that he was a Yahoo Boy. He brought out his identity card to identify himself as a player of Remo Stars FC but the officer insisted on taking him to the nearest police station in Sagamu,” the statement read.
“Kazeem and Sanni followed the SARS officers, only for them to notice that they (the SARS men) were driving towards Sagamu-Abeokuta Expressway. The guys asked to know where the SARS officers were taking them to, but this prompted them to stop the car and pushed Kazeem out of the car, and an unknown vehicle knocked him down.”
Kazeem, who was the club’s assistant captain, was confirmed dead at Fakoya Hospital in Sagamu.
The club said: “He was a humble and reliable defender for Remo Stars FC in the ongoing 2019/2020 Nigeria National League.”
Police in Ogun, however, said the footballer was killed in an attempt to escape from its vehicle heading for Abeokuta.
Ogun police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the player was arrested by a police inspector from the Zonal Intervention Squad for wearing a military cap and was being taken to the ZIS office in Obada in a police operational vehicle.
The spokesman said Kazeem jumped out of the van midway when the vehicle developed a fault and was knocked down by an oncoming vehicle while crossing to the other side of the Abeokuta-Sagamu Expressway.
“On their way to Abeokuta, the vehicle developed a mechanical fault and while trying to rectify it, the man jumped down and took to his heels. While crossing the road, a fast moving, oncoming vehicle crushed him to death,” the police said.
Angry residents protested the death of the footballer at the palace of the Akarigbo of Remoland, Oba Babatunde Ajayi, chanting anti-SARS slogans and demanding sanctions for the officer(s) involved.
