AN ex-militant commander, Selekeme Alade, was shot dead and
a police officer wounded by a police patrol team on the hunt for fleeing armed
robbers on Okoloba Road, Effurun, near Warri, on Wednesday evening.
Angry Ijaw youths besieged Ekpan Police Station, Ekpan,
Thursday morning, in protest, and it took the combined efforts of police
officers and soldiers to dislodge them.
Selekeme, said to be an indigene of Ogiraigbene community in
Bomadi Local Government Area, was reportedly returning from a restaurant where
he went to buy food when the incident occurred.
Police Area Commander in Warri, Hussein Rabiu, confirmed to
Vanguard when contacted, yesterday, that there was an incident in which a
policeman and one other person were shot, but the circumstance surrounding the
shooting was ambiguous.
Contrary to the allegation that the police officers mounted
an illegal checkpoint, he said they were on patrol when they heard people
shouting ‘robbers, robbers, robbers’ and they pursued the people.
He said they caught up with three persons at Okito Junction,
but a police officer identified the driver as an executive of Uvwie youths, but
just as they were exchanging pleasantries, gunshots were fired from an unknown
quarter.
Rabiu said there were subsequent gunshots and at the end, a
police officer was shot, adding, “He is currently in the hospital and one other
person was shot dead on the spot”.
He confirmed that there was tension, as youths stormed Ekpan
Police Station, Thursday, over the incident. He said he and the Divisional
Police Officer, DPO, would have to wait for frayed nerves to calm down before
they visit the area for further investigation.
The police chief, however, said the police officers involved
in the operation had been detained for questioning, noting that it any of them
was found to have done anything wrong in the course of his duty, then,
appropriate disciplinary measure would be taken.
No comments:
Post a Comment