By Christopher Oji
There was pandemonium in the wee hours of Tuesday, when a police team from the Zone 2 Police Command Headquarters, Onikan, Lagos, engaged its counterparts from the Inspector-General of Police Monitoring Unit, Force Headquarters Annex, Lagos, over illegal escort of illicit drugs.
The shooting took place near the Military Cantonment, Bonny Camp, forcing the soldiers to intervene.
It was gathered that officers of the IGP Monitoring Unit were escorting a drug baron with a large quantity of cocaine worth several millions of money when their counterparts at the Zone 2 headquarters got the information and decided to stop them. It was further gathered that the patrol vehicle from Zone 2 barricaded the road near the military Cantonment, Bonny Camp, forcing the drug escorts from the monitoring unit to a halt.
A senior police officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “Our men from Zone 2 got information about the large quantity of drugs being escorted by the IGP Monitoring Unit at about 3am, on Tuesday. Our men were wondering whether it was possible for a unit that should be monitoring others against criminal activities that should be committing crimes.
“Our men tracked the officers, but knowing the implication of what they had done, the monitoring unit decided to intimidate our men and started shooting into the air to scare our men away, but our men remained resolute to find out the quantity of the drugs they wanted to push into the society.
“While our men and the officers from the IGP Monitoring Unit were quarrelling and shooting, officers from the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), stormed the scene, and wanted to take over the large quantity of drugs, but men of the IGP Monitoring Unit tried to resist and started firing again, and the heavy shooting attracted soldiers from Bonny Camp, who stormed the scene, overpowered the police and took possession of the drugs.
“After taking the drugs to their barracks, a senior army officer contacted the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 2, who equally briefed the police high command in Abuja about the development, and the Inspector General of Police ordered the arrest of the policemen from the IGP Monitoring Unit.
“As I am talking to you, the suspects from IGP Monitoring Unit: DSP Fayomi Abraham, ASP Emmanuel Bentong, Inspector Salami Femi, Inspector Ashimi Adedokun and Sergeant Alex Akeredolu, are presently being detained at AIG Zone 2. They were marched to the office by an Assistant Commissioner of Police as instructed by AIG Ali Mohammed Ari”.
It was gathered that AIG Ali contacted the Nigerian Army to see how the drugs would be brought to his command as exhibits against the personnel of the IGP Monitoring Unit who had confessed that they were on illegal duty.
A security guard in one of the offices in the area, John Akuneme, said when he started hearing the gunshots, he took cover, thinking that it was an armed robbery attack, “until I saw the NDLEA officials and soldiers arguing with the police.”
“It is shameful that the police, especially from the IGP monitoring unit, who should be against drug barons, are the ones escorting them. I learned that the soldiers took possession of the drugs.”