Govt probes Police, Air Force men clash in Lagos
From Madu Onuorah, (Abuja),
Wole Shadare, Alex Olise,
Regina Akpabio and
Oluseye Olumide (Lagos)
THE Federal Government has ordered the authorities of the Nigeria Police and the Air Force to set up a joint probe of Tuesday's clash between their personnel in Lagos during which scores of people were injured.
The Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Air Force, Wing Commander Emeka Ozoemena, yesterday, however, said that a "trigger happy" policeman who shot and killed an Air Force man during police raid of alleged hoodlums caused the incident.
The fracas was joined by suspected miscreants area boys, who beat up any policeman they found within the vicinity.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President (Media Matters), Dr. Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, yesterday said that the Federal Government was worried by the development.
The authorities of both institutions have given conflicting explanations of the incident in which about 25 policemen were reported to have been abducted by the Air Force personnel after a free-for-all fight at the Sam Ethnam Air Force base in Ikeja.
Adinoyi-Ojo said that Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday met with the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero, as well as top officials of the Air Force. Ehindero, he added, gave assurance that the culprits would be fished out and duly punished.
His words: "This country has witnessed a lot of bloodshed unnecessarily through something that could have been resolved by due process and people taking the laws into their own hands because they have the powers."
The Vice President also spoke with the Yobe State Governor Bukar Abba Ibrahim over an alleged victimisation of Igbo citizens in the state. Adinoyi-Ojo said: "There was an advert in The Guardian of Wednesday alleging that the Igbo were being victimised. The Vice President was concerned because ethnic problems in Nigeria really start from very innocent incidents like this."
The Ikeja Air Force Base had prior to the clash become a hot spot for the police. An officer of the Air Force and a policeman were reported dead in the incident, while some other persons are still in the hospital.
For the policemen, they can no longer pass freely in front of the Air Force Base on Agege-Motor Road for fear of being attacked. Some of them who dare to take that route tuck their uniforms in bags and move about in mufti for fear of being identified by the area boys who have taken sides with the Air Force personnel.
At the Ikeja General Hospital, where about 26 of them were said to have been rushed for treatment, three policemen were yet to be discharged yesterday afternoon.
With plastered eyelid and bloodshot eyeballs, one policeman, John Olusegun, spoke feebly: "I was on my way to the police headquarters at about 7.00a.m. when suddenly some area boys stopped the bus searching for policemen. They pulled me down and punched me in the eyes. They dragged and pushed me into the Air Force Base. By then, I was unconscious, I did not know what went on again until we were taken to the hospital."
Another policeman, Adekunle Ayinla, suffered severe pains in the head from the injury inflicted on him by the area boys. He preferred not to be disturbed, as he rested on the bed, praying that sleep would come to ease the pains. He only responded by nodding his head to whoever tried to talk to him.
Yet another who would not want his name mentioned said: " Those people did not care if you were among those policemen that operated in the area. They were looking for any policeman. When they saw me in a bus, they stopped it and pulled me down. One of them stabbed me on my waist with a knife. It was one motorcycle operator who saved me from being killed. He carried me on his motorcycle to flee from the spot."
As at yesterday morning, some armed mobile policemen and soldiers were seen at the PWD Bus Stop along the Agege expressway. An eyewitness of Wednesday morning incident said: "The traffic jam along the expressway was terrible, stretching down to Iyana Ipaja from PWD Bus Stop. area boys were all over the road, particularly close to the NAF Base searching for policemen in uniform in any of the commuter buses or private vehicles. Some of the passengers who were not aware of what happened were so scared."
However, when the NAF Base at Ikeja was visited by The Guardian, Ozoemena denied that his men were involved in the beating of the policemen. Although Ozoemena did not say whether the area boys were responsible, he confirmed that one Air Force officer was shot dead by a policeman.
He queried: "Are the men of Nigeria Police given gun to kill and maim innocent citizens Even when a criminal is caught, the law court is there to try the accused and give judgment," adding: "The matter will be taken up officially, the Inspector-General of Police and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police have been contacted over the issue."
On why the area boys attacked the policemen in front of the Base, Ozoemena said: "Nobody sent them, they are not our men, we could not have asked them to go and attack the policemen. We were only trying to help them by treating the wounded."
He added: "The problem started when the policemen were pursuing armed robbers and on reaching P.W.D Bus Stop, they started shooting indiscriminately. The bullet hit one of our officers, Corporal B. P. Obochi, who was returning to the Air Force Base on Agege-Motor Road and he died."
Ozoemena, at a press briefing, said that the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Israel Ajao, had come to see Air Vice Marshal Etsu Ndagi, Air Officer Commanding Logistic Command (NAF) to express the IG's condolence on the death of Obochi.
Ozoemena said that Obochi, who was coming back from his duty post at the NAF Headquarters in Victoria Island, was mistaken for one of the hoodlums and shot by the police.
He, however, denied that NAF was obstructing the duties of the police in that area, even as he accused the police of shooting indiscriminately, as one of the bullets hit the late Corporal whom he said died shortly after he was rushed to the hospital for treatment.
He described the police action as "misuse" of weapons, and carpeted them for their inability to inform the Air Force of their raid for hoodlums near their Base, adding that if they had done that, they would have cautioned their men.
His words: "Our Airman was coming from his duty post and was shot. We read several versions of the story today (yesterday) that we were disrupting police job and that we were harbouring robbers. That is far from the truth. We are the aggrieved persons."
He said that the situation could have been aggravated if the command had not cautioned its men from a reprisal attack on the police.
Ozoemena denied that some Air Force officers in retaliation attacked some police officers, adding that some policemen that were reportedly shot was as a result of the beating received by the police from some miscreants aggrieved by the death of an Airman.
He further explained that the policemen were beaten by "the miscreants who dumped them near our gate", adding that the Force only took the injured policemen to the General Hospital.
He asked: "If we had beaten them, will it be reasonable for us take them to the hospital Our men were cautioned from retaliating. NAF is a law-abiding Force and we will never stop the police from doing its duties. Obochi was in his uniform and was unarmed and did not pose any threat to the job of the police. The police just killed an innocent man doing his job."
The matter, he reiterated, is being resolved at the highest levels of the authorities with a view to finding a lasting solution to the frequent fracas between them.
Ozoemena, however, said that Obochi's killers were punished and urged the press to help check the excesses of some policemen whom he regarded as 'trigger-happy.
