Kazeem Adeyemo

Victims
None established; around 50 attributed by police after his death, with no trial and no victim list
Years active
2005 - 2006 as attributed by police; none established
Location
Ibadan, Nigeria
Method
Not established; the police account described him as an armed robber
Status
Killed in a shoot-out with police on April 9, 2006. There was no trial.

What is on the record is short. In April 2006 the Nigerian police announced that a man named Kazeem Adeyemo, described as a notorious armed robber and killer operating in and around Ibadan in Oyo State, had been killed in a shoot-out with officers on April 9, and that he was believed to have been responsible for around fifty deaths over the preceding year.

There is no trial, because he died before one. There is no court record, no victim list, no autopsy findings and no independent account. Everything attributed to him comes from statements made by the police who shot him, reported in the Nigerian press over the following days.

That is not a reason to assume the statements were false. It is a reason to say clearly what this entry is: a police account of a man who cannot answer it, with a round figure attached. Nigerian police killings of suspects in that period were not routinely investigated, and the practice of attributing outstanding cases to a dead suspect was documented.

The entry is retained because the name appears in the reference works. Nothing in it should be treated as established.