Irate youths kill police, set police station ablaze in Ogun
•Our lives, family threatened by hoodlums
•We lost 23 policemen, 205 police stations burnt -IGP
•It was total anarchy- Gov
•It's my worst nightmare -Victim
•As others count their losses
No one had envisaged that the#EndSARS protest by
Nigerian youths against police brutality which started
peacefully about three weeks ago would turn out a
nightmare for the entire country with the level of
destruction that ended it after it had been hijacked by
hoodlums.
At the initial stage, some state governors not only received
the protesters and addressed them but even joined in the
protest march to the police headquarters. But miscreants
and hoodlums soon took advantage of the protest to
molest and extort residents. The turning point was the
shooting at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos on Tuesday 20th
October 2020 by soldiers where a number of protesters
merely armed themselves with the national flags and
singing the Nigerian national anthem.
This resulted in national and international outrage.
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Angry
residents went on the streets to vent their anger by
attacking both public and private assets.
The police withdrew from the streets to avoid bloody
confrontation with the protesters while the hoodlums
armed with cutlasses, axes and other dangerous weapons
took over and had a field day breaking into shops, looting
and burning.
The discovery of a government warehouse in Lagos where
COVID-19 palliatives meant to be distributed to the people
were kept and which were looted by the residents
appeared to have opened the eyes of the residents of other
states of the federation who went in search of such
warehouses and looted them.
The looting and destruction reached a ridiculous level that
even signboards of public institutions were uprooted and
agricultural tractors carried away. It was a reign of
lawlessness and by the time sanity returned, many lives
had been lost, several police stations and other public
buildings burnt and hundreds of vehicles set ablaze.
The victims have been counting their losses. They have
been thrown into a state of hopelessness.
Their businesses have been ruined.
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They are completely at
a loss as to how and where they would begin to put the
broken pieces of their lives together again.
The major casualty in the whole crisis is the Nigeria
Police Force. In spite of the directive by the Inspector-
General of Police to policemen nation wide to return to
the streets and maintain law and order, this has not been
complied with.
Most of the policemen kept away from the public claiming
that they could no longer walk freely again as their lives
and those of their families were being threatened by
hoodlums who pretended to be #EndSARS protesters.
Few of the policemen who summoned the courage to
come out would rather hide their uniforms in their bags
until they got to their stations for fear of mob attack.
In his account of the magnitude of the damage done to the
police, the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed
Adamu said 23 policemen were killed during the crisis
and several police stations burnt.
He described as untrue report by Amnesty International
that policemen shot at peaceful protesters while the #
EndSARS protest lasted. Rather, the Police Chief affirmed
that policemen acted professionally, by exercising what
he described as commendable restraints, with some of
them paying the supreme price for peace.
The IGP, in a statement signed by the Force Public
Relations Officer, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Frank
Mba, noted that "during the protests, officers of the Force
used legitimate means to ensure that the protests were
carried out in a peaceful manner and in most cases,
physically protected and walked side-by-side with the
protesters.
Even when the protests turned violent in some parts of
the country, the officers still maintained utmost restraint
and did not use excessive force in managing the
situations.
"Available reports show that twenty-two (22) police
personnel were extra-judicially killed by some rampaging
protesters and scores injured during the protests. Many
of the injured personnel are in life threatening conditions
at the hospitals.
"Two hundred and five (205) Police stations and
formations including other critical private and public
infrastructure were also damaged by a section of the
protesters. Despite these unprovoked attacks, our police
officers never resorted to use of unlawful force or
shooting at the protesters"..
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