The Oyo State Police Command has said forensic evidence cleared two officers accused of shooting Nurudeen Azeez, a graduate of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, during a 2021 armed robbery response in the city.

The officers, Inspector Gbenga Ayodele, Sergeant Ayilaran Boluwaji, were attached to the Agodi Divisional Police Headquarters when they responded to an alert about armed robbers on August 16, 2021.

According to the police, an investigation conducted after the incident found that the officers had signed out two police-issued rifles for their assignment. Forensic examination later established that neither firearm had been used in the incident, while the pellets recovered from Azeez were not consistent with the ammunition used by those rifles.

The command said investigators also recovered a locally fabricated firearm at the scene, which showed characteristics consistent with recent discharge. However, it noted that the finding could not establish who had fired it.

The police maintained that although Azeez sustained a genuine gunshot injury, the available evidence did not establish that either of the two officers was responsible. The command said the investigation was concluded in 2021, but restated its findings following the recent resurfacing of the case.

Azeez had recently spoken publicly about the incident, saying the injury left him unable to walk, while maintaining that he was shot by a police officer during his journey home.