MILITARY ATTACK: 3 Civilians Killed, One Severely Injured Lagos

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News, Nigeria 2015 Election Monday, February 23rd, 2015

By Tajudeen Balogun, Lagos – Around late last year (2014), various security operatives including men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and Naval officers were deployed on strategic locations on Ikorodu axis, Lagos, South Western Nigeria, to check the activities of petroleum pipeline vandals and bunkers, whose the corridor has become haven of some sort, to perpetrate their illegalities.

It would be recalled that from the outset, their presence and manner of operations turned uncivil, hence, generated anger and controversies, among the residents, military authority and some key State politicians in Ikorodu constituencies.

Then, the residents complained of rudeness and high handedness in the way the designated Naval officers operated, which among other social disturbance, occasioned regular hectic traffic to and from the State’s Council area.

The lawlessness unleashed by the Naval officers is far from being over, rather, appears temporarily rested, but re – launched, in a more crooked and brutish manner. The terrible ordeal faced by a resident of the ancient town, Engineer Aminu Sanusi on Wednesday, February 18, 2015, who narrowly escaped death and about three others who died in a bloody attack against unarmed civilians explains better.

Aminu, a civil Engineer, narrated the ugly incident Sunday, to the AFRICAN EXAMINER on his sick bed at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja.

He related that on Wednesday (last week) on my way back from the inauguration lecture of Professor Fatimah Adbulkareem who he revelaed is a member of the same association (The Criterion – group of professional women), with his wife, at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) guest house.

“I was in a heavy traffic very close to NNPC, two men were dressed in an army uniform, I was stopped and asked to step out of my car, as I was about stepping out, one of them shot my front tyre, immediately I notified, I told my wife that these people are armed robbers, then we moved instantly and as soon as I moved, they started spraying my car and other vehicles at that spot.

Engineer revealed further that he managed to drive to Majindun bridge where he saw some OP MESA officers, and lodged a complaint. He stated in his narration: “they told me to move to the nearest hospital, saying for me to have driven that far, from the venue of the attack, I can still drive but I told them I can’t and they stopped a vehicle for me who rushed me to the hospital” – Ikorodu General Hospital, from where he was referred to LASUTH.

Responding to AFRICAN EXAMINER, Engineer Aminu said he left his car with them, (OP MESA) and after sending his friends for it, they were told to go and lodge complaint at the nearest police station, which he added was done at Owode Onirin police station along ikorodu road.

“After the police inspection of my car, they said it was not an armed robbery attack because the way my car was shot, was a professional way and besides, the bullets were military in nature and of which I agreed because the way the attack came, didn’t look like an armed robbery attack; indeed they looked like uniform men under the influence of hard drugs to carry out an operation.

“I was later told that people who were victims of that same attack died in the hospital and was also informed the same attack occurred on Friday at the same spot. And ever since, the police have kept that spot on surveillance” the victim exposed.

Engineer Aminu pointed out during the attack, in which the windscreen of his vehicle was shattered with gun shots, he was shot on leg and at hand, adding during the surgery, which was carried out last Friday, five bullets were removed from his leg, while some that pierced into his hand were also cleared.

The victim who carries POP both on his hand and leg when asked, explained that the Naval officers were deployed to support NSCDC officers in stopping the bunkers who used the axis as saving territory, to package and smuggle petroleum products to the desirable destinations.

Aminu who thanked God and expressed joy for surviving the Military madness, said he hoped the security agencies would investigate the attack, with a view to checking re – occurrence, further attack on civilians and killings

He told AFRICN EXAMINER that the IPO in charge of the case visited him last Friday in LASUTH, but could not speak with, but chat with his wife, as he was then in the surgery theater .

Apart from the IPO visit to the hospital, there is no official statement yet from either the Military or Navy on the development.