By Amina Hilda
Over 7,000 people have signed an online petition, demanding justice for a 19-year-old Nigerian student who was shot dead in Canada by the Police.
Afolabi Stephen Opaso, a student of the University of Manitoba, was killed in an apartment suite in the first 100 block of University Crescent in Canada on December 31, 2023.
A statement released by the Winnipeg Police Service on its official website claimed its officers responded to a 911 call regarding a male acting erratically.
“On December 31, 2023, at approximately 2:22 pm, the Winnipeg Police Service responded to an apartment suite in the first 100 block of University Crescent for a 911 call regarding a male acting erratically. The caller advised the male may be armed, and there were other people in the suite,” the Police statement read.
The petitioners who are demanding justice for the young student say he was a vibrant young man whose life was tragically cut short.
According to them, the incident has left a deep scar in their hearts and raised serious concerns about “police brutality and racial profiling”.
“We demand justice for Zigi (the deceased) and all victims of police brutality. We call upon the Canadian Government to conduct an impartial investigation into Zigi’s death and hold those responsible accountable for their actions,” the petitioners stressed.
Reacting to the incident, the Nigerian Association of Manitoba (NAMI), in a statement signed by its president, Vera Obehi Keyede, expressed dismay over the student’s death.
“The Nigerian Association of Manitoba wishes to express her deepest concern and regret over the unfortunate incident involving the shooting that led to the death of a Nigerian international student, by the Winnipeg Police Service on the 31st of December 2023,” the statement partly reads.
The Association further called for calm as an investigation, they revealed, is underway.
CTV News reported that the Winnipeg police reported the shooting to the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba (IIU) hours later and the IIU has opened investigations into the killing.
This is not the first time a black person is being disproportionately shot by the police in Canada.
According to an investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Black people, as of 2020, represented 8% of all fatalities involving police despite making up only 3% of the population.
This, according to the Petitioners, is an “alarming statistic that highlights systemic racism within our law enforcement agencies”.
