Anthony Iwuoma
No fewer than four people reportedly lost their lives, on Thursday, when policemen and tricycle riders (Keke) engaged one another in a bloody clash in the Abule-Egba area of Lagos State.
It was gathered that a yet-to-be identified policeman allegedly stabbed a tricycle operator, simply identified only as Eleyele, who rebuffed his demand for N100 bribe, at Ile-Iwe Bus Stop.
Consequently, a crowd of protesters carried the victim’s corpse and deposited it in front of the Meiran Police Division.
However, things reportedly degenerated when the protesting Keke riders reportedly attacked the police station with bottles and stones, resulting in a clash.
It was gathered that the mob sought to set the police station ablaze, but were repelled by the policemen, who reportedly dispersed them with bullets and tear gas canisters.
READ ALSO: http://IYC fights FG over non-inclusion of Bayelsa in 21 roads to be reconstructed by NNPC
In the clash that followed, policemen allegedly shot three more people.
A 16-year-old apprentice, said to be the son of a blind woman, who was hit by a stray bullet was said to be among the dead.
Consequently, protests against the killings paralysed business activities in the area, as vehicular movements were prevented from operating in the area and people running helter-skelter to escape the melee.
The protesters set bonfires on the Command Road and littered some sections of the expressway with broken bottles.
Spokesman of the Lagos State Police Command, CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu, assured that there was no cause for alarm as the the Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, had dispatched police patrol teams to the troubled area to maintain law and order.
