Akegbe and Adaji
The
Lagos State commands of the Nigerian Police and The Nigerian Security
and Civil Defence Corps on Thursday continued to accuse each other of
causing the incident that led to the killing of two NSCDC men on
Wednesday.
While the police said the corps started
the problem after its men disarmed and handcuffed a police inspector,
the NSCDC said the inspector attacked its senior official.
A recording of an interrogation of an official of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps was shown to PUNCH Metro by a police source.
The unnamed official said the police did not ambush the corps officials who were on anti-pipeline duty in the Ikorodu.
The NSCDC authorities had told PUNCH Metro
on Wednesday that 14 of its men were on anti-pipeline vandalism
operation and had arrested some suspects and were heading for their
Lagos headquarters when a team of policemen opened fire on them and
aided the vandals in escaping.
However, the NSCDC official, who said he
was part of the team in the recording, said the incident was not an
ambush but a show of force between the two agencies which degenerated
into a gun duel, which led to the death of the two NSCDC men, Gabriel
Adaji and Innocent Akegbe
He said, “Around midnight, we had just
finished operations and we were getting the suspects into our vans when a
Toyota Camry pulled over. Two men alighted from the car. One of the men
was in mufti and he was wielding a pistol while the other man was a
police sergeant in uniform, wielding an AK47 rifle.
“We were in uniform so my boss, DSC,
Olufemi asked the man in mufti to identify himself and he said he was an
inspector. The man started arguing with us, saying we had no right to
be there since we did not inform the police before coming for operation.
An argument ensued and my boss ordered us to disarm and handcuff only
the inspector.
“We handcuffed him, collected his service
pistol, walkie-talkie, and Police Identity card. As we were about
dragging him into one of our standby Hilux vehicles, some policemen came
from nowhere and started shooting at us.”
The NSCDC official said his colleagues
also retaliated and the gun duel lasted for a long period leading to the
deaths of Adaji and Akegbe.
It was learnt that one of the NSCDC men was arrested by the police and was currently at the state command headquarters.
But another source at the NSCDC said the recording was propaganda by the police.
He said, “The fact is that they ambushed
us and until something is done by our employer, the Federal Government,
we will continue to have problems like this.”
The source said the case was being
handled at the national level, adding that the Commandant-General would
soon be making a case against the police before the Federal Government.
The spokesperson for the state police
command, Ngozi Braide, said investigations were ongoing but said the
NSCDC erred by saying police ambushed its officers.
Braide said the NSCDC breached protocol by not informing the police in the area about their presence prior to the operations.
She said, “It is standard protocol that
when you are going on operation, you must alert the police in the area
so that they would be aware. The civil defence people went there and
were firing shots causing confusion in the area.
“They were even accused of killing
someone in Majidun area during one of their raids in January, but
because the police were not aware of their operation, it hindered
investigations. This is the kind of thing we are trying to prevent.
Police did not ambush them and set vandals free. It is not possible.”
The Deputy Public Relations Officer for
the corps, Sola Odumosu, however said investigations would continue but
said there was no need to correct the police’s claim as it was medicine
after death.
“The incident is a national one and
investigations are ongoing. The deed has been done, our men have been
killed and if the position of the police is that they did not ambush our
men, then they are free to say whatever they want.”
punch
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