Lagos police detain ASP Omotayo Olajide after his firearm kills a girl, Omole Taiwo, and injures another in Ajegunle
The Lagos State Police Command said on Saturday 7 November 2026 that an Assistant Superintendent of Police, Omotayo Olajide, has been disarmed and detained after he discharged his firearm during an operation in the Nosamu area of Ajegunle on Thursday night, killing a girl, Omole Taiwo, and injuring another. Police had been deployed after a distress call about a violent clash between two rival groups over toll collection. Both girls were taken to Ajeromi General Hospital; Taiwo was transferred to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, where she died. The case has been handed to the State Criminal Investigation Department.
Checking in progress
This story is still being checked. Claims below are published as claims — never dressed as facts — and each one moves only when the evidence earns it.
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Key points
- Thursday night, Nosamu, Ajegunle: during a police response to a clash between two rival groups, ASP Omotayo Olajide's firearm discharged and struck two girls.
- One girl, named by police as Omole Taiwo, died after transfer to LASUTH; the second is receiving medical attention.
- Olajide has been disarmed and detained; the State Criminal Investigation Department has taken over the investigation.
- The police statement does not say whether the shot was deliberate or accidental — that is what the investigation is to establish.
What happened
The shooting happened during a police operation in a dense Lagos neighbourhood, after a distress call about a clash the police say was over toll collection between two groups armed with cutlasses. The command announced the detention itself, in a statement expressing sorrow over the loss of an innocent life — the facts on this page are the command's own account, and the central question it leaves open is how the officer's firearm came to be fired at all.
Claim by claim
Why this label: The police command's own statement (spokesperson SP Abimbola Adebisi, Saturday 7 November), quoted in the same terms by Punch, The Sun Nigeria, the New Telegraph and other Nigerian outlets, all read. The command is the primary source for its own deployment account; how the firearm came to be discharged is expressly left open by the statement and sits in the don't-know list.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: From the command's statement as reported by The Sun Nigeria and the New Telegraph. The statement gives no ages for the girls, and none is carried here.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: The command's own statement on its response, reported identically across the outlets read.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
What we know / what we don't know yet
What we know
- The time, place and circumstances as the command states them; the death of Omole Taiwo and the injury to a second girl; the officer's detention and the SCID investigation.
What we don't know yet
- Whether the firearm was fired deliberately or discharged accidentally — the command's statement does not say, and the investigation is to establish it.
- The injured girl's identity and condition beyond 'receiving medical attention', and either girl's age — the statement gives none.
- Any account from residents or the families — none was in the reporting read.
Why it matters
A child is dead after a police operation in a residential street, and the officer's own command has detained him and opened a criminal investigation. What that investigation finds — and whether it is published — will decide whether this becomes an accounted-for tragedy or another unanswered one.
Update history
No silent edits. Every change is written here, with its time.
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Published in Checking state — checking continues, and claims are labelled as reporting develops. Basis: the Lagos State Police Command's own statement of 7 November.