27th January, 2015
Damilare Okunola & Yusuf Mohammed
At least two police officers attached to the Owutu Police Division, Owutu, Agric, Ikorodu, Lagos State, western Nigeria, have been reportedly gunned down by suspected oil thieves.
P.M.NEWS gathered that some of the oil thieves, predominantly from Ijaw, had been arrested and detained by the police at the station on Monday, but the vandals regrouped and attacked the Police Station, killing two police corporals in the process.
When our correspondent visited the Police Station on Tuesday morning, there was tension everywhere as the area was cordoned off by policemen.
Efforts to speak with the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, proved futile as our correspondents were not allowed audience with him.
Sources at the Police Station disclosed that the incident may have escalated because of the policemen’s alleged regular connivance with the oil thieves over the years.
“I was also there this morning to gather information on what happened. I had to put a call through to somebody who confirmed the incident. However, the DPO was nowhere to be found because it seems to be a shameful and disgraceful incident,” a respected Ikorodu-based journalist explained.
In a chat with P.M.NEWS this morning, Kenneth Nwosu, the Lagos State Police Command Public Relations Officer, PPRO, informed that the oil thieves engaged the policemen in a fierce battle in the midnight.
Nwosu disclosed that the men, numbering about 30 “engaged the police in a gun duel and two of our officers lost their lives in the process.
“The oil thieves sustained various degrees of injuries during the duel and they escaped. But our men are on their trail.
“Investigation is ongoing as we are looking at bringing them to justice because this is really unlawful.”
He declined to mention the names of the officers killed by the notorious oil thieves who operate in Ikorodu with reckless abandon.