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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 and after killing him, the 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, stormed the auto shop and attempted to burn it down.
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 anti-mobile policeman was invited by the shop owner to assist him in security issues as street urchins popularly known as area boys used to extort him on daily basis.
Abimbola said: “Every time area boys come to extort money from 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 policemen told them that Oga (shop owner) was having a meeting in his office. The area boys left and came back around 12am, demanding to see the shop owner but policeman told them to go as the owner of the shop was still in the meeting.
“The answer given to the area boys by the policeman did not go down well with them and they decided to forcefully enter the compound which the policeman resisted. 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 dead Segun, 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. It was in our hiding places 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 intended to use to set the shop and the workers ablaze. Thank God for the police.”
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 burnt tyres.
Lagos State police public relations officer, Bala Elkana, said investigations have commenced into the matter.
