Court Remands Lagos BRT Driver Arrested Over Bamise’s Murder

A magistrate court in Yaba, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, has remanded Andrew Nice, driver of the BRT vehicle which Bamise Ayanwola, the late 22-year-old fashion designer, had been aboard.

O.A Salawu, the magistrate, granted the remand request of the police and ordered the suspect be held at the Ikoyi correctional centre on Friday, March 11.

She adjourned the case to April 11.

HumAngle reported how Bamise went missing after boarding a BRT bus driven by Nice at the Ajah axis of the state on Feb. 26. The corpse of Bamise was found at Carter Bridge in Lagos Island nine days later.

Nice was later arrested by officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) at Ogun state after he fled Lagos.

The Nigerian police on Friday filed a four-count charge against the BRT driver.

The charges against the driver are alleged murder, rape, and interference with the deceased’s corpse.

Yetunde Cardoso, Officer in charge of the Legal Department at the State Criminal Investigation Department Panti, said Ominnikoron committed the offence at 8 p.m. on Feb. 26, along Ajah-Oshodi Expressway, on a Lagos State BRT bus with code number 257.

She said the offence contravened the provisions of sections 411, 223, 260, and 165 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised).

Section 223 stipulates death penalty for the offence of murder, 260 provides for life imprisonment for rape, and 165 carries five years imprisonment for misconduct with regards to corpses.

Outside the court, Ayo Ademiluyi, Ayanwola family’s lawyer condemned what he described “as the refusal of the Governor to pay a condolence visit to the grieving family.”

“Lagos State Government is the franchisor of the franchise agreement of the Bus Rapid Transport which the Lagos Bus Services Ltd is executing. We also want to say that the Lagos Bus Service Ltd has a corporate criminal liability hanging on its neck in this case.”

Worrying Trend 

HumAngle earlier reported how another Lagosian, Anigbo, was declared missing less than 72 hours after Bamise’s corpse was found. He was said to have been missing since March 2, according to a post by his brother on Twitter. 

Between May and Aug. 2021, nine persons including elderly and young people were posted by Missing Person, a platform dedicated to finding missing persons in Nigeria.

In Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, police records revealed that a total of 301 persons were declared missing between June 2020 and Nov. 2021. It was not clear if they were found dead or alive.

Nigerians are concerned that cases of missing persons are recorded on a daily basis across the country while many of them are never found, those found are often seen with missing body parts.

As places are becoming dangerous for citizens to access and be safe, there is a need for the government to ensure that there are surveillance cameras in public transport systems.

“There should be constant sensitisation on emergency numbers, the numbers should be well displayed on every police van,” a Lagos resident, Joseph Samuel told HumAngle.