The Nigeria Police Force has detained 5 police men attached to the Grammy award winner Damini Ogulu, aka Burna Boy over the shooting of two fun seekers, Irebami Lawrence and another simply identified as Tolu at Club Cubana in Lagos on June 8.
Burna Boy was said to have been laughing while the incident occurred and immediately left for Spain shortly after.A
ccording to a report by the bar beach police division, problem started around 4am on June 8, when the popular singer with 5 of his police escort visited Club Cubana in Victoria Island, Lagos.
About 4 of the police officers waited outside the club while one of the police men, dentified as Inspector Ibrahim, who was on mufti, accompanied the musician in to the club.
According to eye witnesses, the singer was in the VIP section if the club with three women when he spotted another and had told Ibrahim to invite the woman to join him.
However, the lady’s husband lambasted Burna Boy, saying it was disrespectful for any man to make advances at his wife.
This didn’t stop the musician as he was reported to have made fresh advances towards the woman.
This infuriated the lady’s husband and his friends who were gathered at the club as things soon got out of hand.
“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 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.
“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 trying to protect the Grammy Award winner 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.
Benjamin Hundeyin, the spokesman for the State police command had said the focus of the investigation was the police men.
Hundeyin also claimed that the police had not recieved any complaints 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, Burna Boy was declared wanted by the Lagos State police command in connection with the robbery attack on another popular musician, Mr 2kay.
The alledged robbery incident occurred Eko Hotel and suites in October 2017.
The matter was later settled amicably between Burna Boy and Mr 2Kay and the Ye crooner escaped criminal prosecution.