Christopher Oji
A policeman believed to be from the Mobile Police Force (MPF), has shot dead a technician, Ahmed Segun, at the Ikotun area of Lagos.
Segun, was shot dead at the wee hours of yesterday in a car shop. After killing him, the yet-to-be-identified policeman took to his heels.
Following the killing, pandemonium broke out as street urchins and sympathisers took to the street in protest. The angry protesters who made bonfire on the streets, shouting war songs; they stormed the auto shop and attempted to burn down the shop.
However, the quick intervention of the police saved the situation as 12 persons, including five women were rescued from the car shop.
A witness, Abimbola, who was in the car shop during the shooting, said the mobile policeman was invited by the shop owner to assist him in security issues as street urchins also known as area boys used to extort him on daily bases.
Abimbola said: “Every time, area boys use to come to extort the car owner and he invited two mobile policemen to guard the company so as to ward off the area boys.
“The area boys who were desperate still came around 11pm on Tuesday, but one of the mobile policemen told them thatoga (shop owner) was having a meeting in his office. The area boys left and came back around 12 midnight demanding to see the shop owner. Yet, the mobile policeman told them to go as the owner of the shop was still at a meeting.
“The answer given to them by the policeman did not go down well with them and they decided to forcefully enter the compound prompting the mobile policeman to resist them. A heated argument ensued. During the argument, the mobile policeman shot one of the area boys who was later identified as Ahmed Segun. Immediately the policeman shot Segun dead, he took to his heels and escaped.
“After the policeman escaped with his colleague, the area boys who initially took to their heels reinforced and held us hostage in the car shop. We ran into the offices and hid ourselves. It was in our hidings that we started making phone calls to the police who came and rescued us around 2am. It was like confronting death itself, because the boys were armed with dangerous weapons including fuel that they would have used to set the shop and the workers ablaze.”
When the reporter visited the scene, policemen from the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), State Police Command and Area M Command, Ikotun division were still on ground keeping vigil while the road was littered with broken bottles and bonfire made by the protesters.
A senior police officer who did not want his name to be mentioned said the owner of the shop had been invited by the state police command to give details of the mobile policeman who fired the shot.
“We have been directed by the Commissioner of Police to remain in the crisis zone till peace returns to the area; if not for our intervention, the crisis would have escalated.”
Lagos State Police Public Relations (PPRO), DSP Bala Elkana, said the Lagos State Police Command had commenced investigations into the circumstances surrounding the death of Segun.
He said: “On August 6, at about 9pm, the command received a distress call that some youths armed with dangerous weapons attacked a car stand at Council area, Ikotun road, Idimu, and about to set the building ablaze. Police teams from Idimu and neighbouring police stations were mobilised to the scene. Reinforcements were also sent from the Rapid Response squads.
“Preliminary investigation showed that the youths were reacting to the death of one of their own known as Ahmed Segun, 32, purported to have been shot by a mobile policeman protecting the company. Witnesses stated that there was an argument that ensued between the mobile policeman and the deceased which led to a physical confrontation. Some of the witnesses narrated that the deceased person and his friends made an attempt to forcefully gain access into the company but were resisted by the mobile policeman which resulted into a fight and eventual shooting of the deceased person. The group are notorious for harassing people in the area. The whereabouts of the said mobile policeman is unknown. It is not also certain whether he is dead or alive. The Commissioner of Police Lagos State has ordered an indebt investigation into the case.”