Fuel/Naira Scarcity: Police Confirm Killing Of Vigilante In Ibadan During Protest
By Admin
Oyo state police Command has confirmed killing of one vigilante officer during a protest in Ibadan.
Naijanewshub.com.ng reports that the issue of fuel and new naira notes scarcity is becoming something else, and it requires urgent attention by the concerned stakeholders before the situation goes out of hand, as Oyo State Police Command on Saturday confirmed dead one vigilante officer during a protest by some hoodlums in the state at Apata Axis of Ibadan on Saturday.
Recall that a policeman attached to Governors Office was seriously injured on Friday when some hoodlums forcefully find their way into the state Secretariat during a protest over fuel and new naira notes scarcity in town.
The sad development was confirmed through a press statement issued by the state Police Public Relations Officer, SP. Adewale Osifeso.
A copy of the statement made available to journalists stated that the Oyo State Police Command wishes to unequivocally re-assert its resolve to maintain the relative tranquility in the state despite pockets of protests witnessed in some parts of the Metropolis under the Capital.
Osifeso through the statement recall the Command issued an advisory via a press release dated Friday 03/02/2023 with the intent to intimate residents about concluded plans of some criminal elements to destabilize and completely bring to a halt economic activities in the State by launching coordinated attacks on critical infrastructures to include INEC facilities, Banks, Correctional Centers, Religious Centers, Landmarks ,recreational Centers, Shopping Malls, Business Centers, Public Spaces and other places of interest under the guise of protesting the scarcity of fuel and paucity of cash for dispense at ATM Machines and Point of Sales Terminals.
The statement maintained that Consequent on the above stated, Oyo State Police Command in concert with relevant sister agencies embarked on high octane joint convoy patrols simultaneously across the nook and crannies of the state with the sole purpose of ridding the environs off undesirable elements with sinister motives of hijacking the situation to make criminal proceeds.
Today Saturday, 04/02/2023 at about 1015hrs, while embarking series of confidence building patrols around different blackspots and flash points, the joint convoy patrol comprising of the Police and other agencies ran into a band of hoodlums around Apata Junction Market, Apata Area under Ido Local Government Area.
In a rather surprising event, the hoodlums who had perfected plans to molest residents, harass shop owners and loot shops on sighting the combined convoy of security launched a series of unprovoked attacks by firing guns, hurling stones, sharp objects and other dangerous missiles at them.
The trained officers, cautious of the level of casualties that might be recorded should they engage at the location, resorted to restraints and professionally took charge at the scene while arresting the situation with reasonable force in line with standard operational procedure.
However, during the rage, an individual identified to have been a member of a vigilante group and who was reported to have died in the fiasco has since been deposited at a government hospital for post-mortem.
Meanwhile normalcy has since returned to the area with heavy deployment of patrol teams and other tactical assets visibly on ground.
So also, the Commissioner of Police has directed that the Deputy Commissioner of Police in Charge of the State Criminal Investigation Department leads the investigating team with a deadline for results as an arrest was made.
In cases of emergency, the Command can always be reached through these emergency control room numbers: 615 (toll free) (OYO STATE SECURITY TRUST FUND), and Oyo State Police Command emergency lines 07055495413 and 08081768614. The NPF rescue me app is also available for free download on both Android and Apple IOS, for Android and I phone users respectively.
Further updates would be communicated accordingly,please. The statement concluded.