Five Police Officers Arrested For Shooting Fun-Seekers At Nightclub, As Burna Boy Flees

The Lagos State Police Commissioner’s Special Squad has apprehended five police officers linked to musician Damini Ogulu aka Burna Boy for attempted murder after shooting two fun seekers, Irebami Lawrence and Tolu, inside Club Cubana in Lagos on Wednesday.

Accordibg to the PUNCH, trouble began around 4 a.m. on June 8, 2022, when the musician and five police escorts visited Club Cubana in Victoria Island, according to a preliminary police report from the Bar Beach Police Division in Lagos State.

Four Police officers waited outside as one of them, Inspector Ibrahim, who was dressed in mufti, escorted the Grammy-winning artiste into the club.

The musician was in the VIP section with three women when he spotted another woman, according to various witness testimony.

According to reports, he told Ibrahim to invite the woman to join him.

The lady’s husband, on the other hand, was said to have slammed Burna Boy, claiming that it was rude for any man to be making passes at his wife.

Burna Boy was said to have made fresh advances toward the woman after a few minutes.

This enraged her husband and his friends, who had gathered in the club, and the situation quickly escalated.

“As things were getting heated, Ibrahim brought out his service pistol and shot multiple times while Burna Boy was laughing,” said a senior policeman.

It was gathered that 27 year-old Lawrence was shot in the thigh while his friend, Tolu, was hit in the head by a bullet.

This led to agitation and commotion in the club.

While people brought out their phones to record what was happening, the policemen began snatching and destroying the phone.

“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.

According to sources close to the victims, police were already attempting to protect Burna Boy due to his status as the victims were being treated for their injuries at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital in 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.

While addressing newsmen, a sibling of the victim identified only as Jide claimed his brother had surgery on Friday to remove the bullet from his thigh.

According to Jide, Irebami, who is based in the United States, had only been in Nigeria for a week for a wedding when the sad situation occurred.

He also chastised Club Cubana’s administration for not doing enough to prevent the occurrence, claiming that the club had not even contacted 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.

Also, Chioma Nwachukwu, a media consultant for Cubana, did not respond to calls on Saturday.

The Spokesman for the Lagos State Police command, Benjamin Hundeyin, told PUNCH that the focus of the investigation were the policemen involved.

He 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.”

The Lagos State police command had declared Burna Boy wanted in 2017 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 forcefully taken his wristwatch, gold jewellery, phones, among other valuables estimated at millions of naira, at gunpoint.

The Ye crooner escaped criminal prosecution when the matter was later settled amicably between Burna Boy and Mr 2Kay.