Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Pierre Antoine
A fresh controversy has erupted in Lagos after four policemen and a developer accused over the killing of traders at the Owode-Onirin International Spare Parts Market were reportedly freed on the strength of legal advice from the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions, a decision that has triggered outrage from victims’ families, human rights lawyer Femi Falana and a senior police officer who insists there is enough evidence to prosecute. The case, which stems from a violent market confrontation on August 27, 2025, has become one of the most contentious justice disputes in recent months because it sits at the intersection of alleged land grabbing, police deployment from outside Lagos, disputed forensic evidence and the deaths of multiple traders.
According to the most detailed recent account, the Lagos State Ministry of Justice released the four officers and developer Abiodun Akeem Ariori after the DPP, Babajide Martins, issued legal advice dated March 3, 2026, concluding that there was no prima facie case to support their prosecution. That advice reportedly held that the officers acted in self-defence after coming under attack from a mob, and further stated that Ariori was not present when the shooting occurred. The DPP also argued that investigators failed to supply sufficient forensic material to connect the suspects directly to the deaths, including autopsy reports, ballistic analysis of recovered bullets and examination results for the rifles allegedly used in the incident.
That conclusion has immediately collided with the position of the police investigators who handled the matter in Lagos. In a letter dated March 5, 2026, Deputy Commissioner of Police Dayo Akinbisehin of the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, wrote to the DPP urging a review of the legal advice. He said autopsy reports from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital and ballistic examination findings from the Force Criminal Investigation Department showed that the suspects were culpable and that the state had a case capable of standing trial. The letter, as reported, directly contradicted the DPP’s assertion that the file lacked enough scientific evidence to proceed.
The clash between the DPP and the police goes to the core of why the case has become so explosive. Only weeks earlier, an Ebute-Metta Chief Magistrates’ Court had remanded the four officers pending legal advice from the DPP, after prosecutors alleged that they conspired with others at large and shot traders dead with AK-47 rifles at the market. Court reporting from March described the remand as a step toward accountability, and Falana, who represents the traders and the victims’ families, publicly welcomed it at the time as evidence that the authorities were prepared to pursue justice.
The killings themselves have been shrouded in competing claims since they happened. The broad outline, however, is consistent across credible reports. On August 27, 2025, armed policemen allegedly entered the Owode-Onirin market during an operation linked to a disputed takeover of a section of the sprawling spare parts complex. Several reports said the officers had been brought from Nasarawa State by Ariori, described as an agent acting for a Lagos family claiming rights over land occupied by traders. What followed was a violent confrontation that ended in gunfire, multiple deaths and the destruction of property.
There is some inconsistency in public reporting over whether six or seven traders were killed. The latest release-versus-prosecution dispute has largely been framed around six dead traders, and Punch listed six victims by name. Guardian’s court report, however, referred to seven traders while naming six victims in the text, suggesting either an editorial inconsistency or unresolved confusion in the underlying case record. Vanguard, reporting on the burials earlier this month, also referred to six slain traders and identified them as Seyi Akinboye, Adeoye Taiwo, Dare Mufutau, Aderemi Hakeem, Abraham Temoola and Wale Adebayo. What is beyond dispute is that multiple traders were killed and their deaths became a rallying point for market protesters and rights advocates.
The issue of how the accused officers first regained freedom has also deepened suspicion. Punch reported in October 2025 that three policemen accused in the market killings had earlier been released after being taken to Abuja instead of facing trial in Lagos, with one source claiming they were freed following an orderly room trial on self-defence grounds. That earlier release had already prompted accusations of cover-up from families and market stakeholders. The recent DPP advice, arriving after the officers were later arraigned and remanded, has therefore been interpreted by critics as a second collapse of the accountability process rather than an isolated legal decision.
Falana has responded by saying his legal team will supply the DPP with the information it says was missing so that the case can be properly reassessed. He has also said a civil suit will be filed to seek compensation for the families of those killed. That response is important because it signals that the victims’ side is not treating the DPP’s advice as the end of the matter. Instead, the legal battle now appears set to shift to both renewed pressure for criminal prosecution and a compensation-driven civil action.
The human backdrop has made the controversy harder to contain. Vanguard reported on April 6 that the six slain traders were finally buried in Ikorodu after months of grief, delay and agitation. Families described the dead as breadwinners and insisted that justice had not been done. The burials reinforced public memory of the incident, now widely remembered among affected traders as “Black Wednesday,” and sharpened the sense that the legal system was moving in the opposite direction from the demands of the bereaved.
At its heart, the dispute is no longer only about one legal opinion. It has become a test of whether the Lagos justice system can convincingly explain why police investigators say there is forensic proof of culpability while the DPP says the evidence is inadequate. Until that contradiction is resolved publicly and transparently, the release of the officers and the developer will continue to be seen by critics not as due process, but as an emblem of impunity in a case where traders were killed during a land-linked enforcement operation.
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