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By Christopher Oji
There was pandemonium Thursday morning at Ilewe Command , Ipaja area of Lagos after a police stabbed dead a trycicle rider popularly known as as Keke.
The killing triggered serious fight between the Keke riders and the police after which two other persons including a 16-year-old buy were fell during the exchange of gunshots between the police and Keke riders.
The Keke riders who exchanged gun firing with the police also chased the patrol team, throwing stones and other dangerous weapons at the police took over the road protesting the killing of their colleague.
The Policemen who fired lots of gunshots to scare away the riders also called for reinforcement from other police formations who came to their rescue.
A witness who is also a Keke rider, told Daily Sun that the unfortunate incident occurred in the morning.
“Our members, CK ,was conveying passengers when he was stopped by police officers, who asked him for N100 bribe, but he told them that he just resumed work and had not collected money from his first trip, promising to give them their request when he would come back,but one of the officers picked up quarrels with him. It was in that process that he stabbed CK in the chest with a jacknife who died few minutes after the fatal injury.
” It was after the killing that some of our members wanted to avenge his death, but the police after firing some shots took to their heels and escaped after firing many gunshots. We are tired of Police extortion . The police will extort us in the morning, afternoon, evening and night. After the police, we will settle Lagos State Traffic Management Agency, LATSMA, Road Safety , Vehicle Inspection Officers and motor tauts. The government should come to our aide and save us from untimely death and extortion”.
Another witness told Daily Sun that three persons died during the war between the Police and the Keke riders.
Wasiu ( aka Iku), said:” Three persons were shot dead by the police. A 16-year-old boy was among the dead. We won’t take lightly with the police. We are going to match to Alausa to see our Governor over police intimidation and extortion”.
However, normalcy has returned to the area, but commuters who were trapped during the crisis were seen trekking long distances to their various destinations as motorists,commercial motorcycle and trycicle riders were scared to take the axis for fear of being attacked.
Lago State Police Public Relations Officer CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu only said that normalcy has returned to the area .
