The Lagos State Police Commissioner’s Special Squad has
detained five policemen attached to singer Damini Ogulu aka Burna Boy for
attempted murder after they shot two fun seekers, Irebami Lawrence and another
identified simply as Tolu, at Club Cubana in Lagos on Wednesday.
The development comes just a few years after the Lagos State
police command declared Burna Boy wanted for allegedly sending armed thugs to
assault and rob fellow musician, Abiye Jumbo, aka Mr. 2Kay.
According to a preliminary police report by the Bar Beach
Police Division in Lagos State, trouble started around 4am on June 8, 2022 when
the musician and five police escorts visited Club Cubana in Victoria Island.
About four policemen waited outside while one of the
policemen identified as Inspector Ibrahim, who was in mufti, accompanied the
Grammy- winning artiste into the club.
According to multiple witness statements, the singer was in
the VIP section with three women when he spotted another woman.
He was reported to have told Ibrahim to invite the woman to
come join him.
However, the lady’s husband was said to have lambasted Burna
Boy, insisting that it was disrespectful for any man to make advances at his
wife.
After some minutes, Burna Boy was reported to have made
fresh advances towards the woman.
This infuriated her husband further and his friends who had
gathered at the club and the matter soon degenerated.
“As things were getting heated, Ibrahim brought out his
service pistol and shot multiple times while Burna Boy was laughing,” said a
senior policeman.
In the process, 27 year-old Lawrence was shot in the thigh
while his friend, Tolu, was hit in the head by a bullet.
This caused commotion in the club.
Some people brought out their phones to record what was
happening but the policemen began snatching and smashing phones.
“They eventually made their way out of the club and also
shot into the air in order to escape. While all this happened, the Cubana
management did nothing about it. In the first place, they ought not to have
allowed anyone to bring in a gun into the club,” said a senior policeman.
It was learnt that Burna Boy and his crew drove off to one
of his properties in the Elegushi end of the Lekk-Epe Expressway and later
Lekki Phase 1.
“Aware of what he had done, Burna Boy took the next flight
out without even informing his policemen. He only called them on video later to
inform them that he had travelled to Spain. All his police escorts have been
arrested and are currently at the command headquarters,” said a top source at
the office of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police.
Sources close to the victims said the police were already
making attempts to protect Burna Boy because of his status while the victims
were treating their wounds at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital,
Ikeja.
“They want to focus all attention on the policemen and
absolve Burna Boy of blame. It is obvious that the police will not do anything
about the matter just like in the case of Mr 2Kay,” said a friend of the
victims.
A brother to the victim, who identified himself only as
Jide, said his brother had undergone a surgery to remove the bullet from his
thigh on Friday.
Jide further stated Irebami, who is based in the United
States, had only arrived in Nigeria a week ago for a wedding when the
unfortunate incident happened.
He also berated the management of Club Cubana for not doing
enough to forestall the situation, adding that the club management had not even
reached out to the family since the incident occurred.
Jide added, “My brother and his friends came in from the US
for a wedding when this thing happened. The annoying part was that Burna Boy
was even laughing when this shooting was taking place. He approved of what they
did.
“One of the bullets grazed my brother’s friend in the head
while my brother was shot in the thigh. He underwent a surgery on Friday.
“The Cubana people are even denying that anything happened.
They have not even reached out to us. It was only the morning of the shooting
that a manager at the club, White Lion, interacted with us.”
Attempts to get a response from Burna Boy’s manager, Mrs.
Bose Ogulu, who is also his mother, proved abortive as she neither responded to
calls nor a text message on Saturday.
Similarly, Chioma Nwachukwu, a media consultant for Cubana,
did not respond to calls on Saturday.
But the Spokesman for the Lagos State Police command,
Benjamin Hundeyin, said the focus of the investigation were the policemen.
Hundeyin also claimed that the police had not received any
complaint from any victim.
He said, “It was the policemen attached to him that shot and
it is an internal disciplinary matter. They will explain why they had to shoot
into the air and the outcome of their explanation during the investigation will
determine what steps to take next.
“So, it is an internal thing with the police officers that
were with him. Except you have news that Burna Boy was the one shooting; then
we will have to investigate how he got the gun and all that. But what we have
for now is that the policemen were the ones that shot.
“We are treating the policemen internally for disciplinary
matters. We didn’t get a report of somebody being hit by a bullet. If somebody
was hit by a bullet, anybody treating the person is supposed to have reported
but we didn’t get any report of such. The investigation is ongoing.”
In 2017, the Lagos State police command declared Burna Boy
wanted for allegedly sending thugs to attack and rob fellow artiste, Mr 2kay,
in his room at the Eko Hotel and Suites on Victoria Island after performing in
the 2face’s ‘Buckwyld N Breathless’ concert held in the hotel.
They were reported to have beaten him up and dispossessed
him of a wristwatch, gold jewellery, phones, among other valuables estimated at
millions of naira, at gunpoint.
The matter was later settled amicably between Burna Boy and
Mr 2Kay and the Ye crooner escaped criminal prosecution.
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