A police officer attached to the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences Enforcement Unit (Taskforce), Sergeant Owoeye Olumide, was on Thursday shot by miscreants around ‘Lily Pond Transit Truck Park’ at Apapa.
It was gathered that operatives of the agency were on enforcement operation around Apapa when miscreants with cutlasses, charms, broken bottles and guns attacked them.
Olumide sustained bullet wound on his thigh but was immediately rushed to the hospital for treatment.
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Chairman of the agency, SP Olayinka Egbeyemi, confirmed the incident, saying the attack was as a result of the demolition of illegal structures and shanties, which served as an abode for miscreants around the area.
“They hide inside these illegal structures and shanties to carry out their nefarious criminal activities on innocent members of the public.
“One of my Police Officers, Sergeant Owoeye Olumide, was hit by a bullet in his left thigh from these miscreants, who protested against the demolition of these illegal structures around Lilly Pond Road, Apapa,” he said.
Egbeyemi said the demolition exercise became imperative, following complaints of criminal attacks on residents and traders around the area.
He said: “The entire Lily Pond area of Apapa has now become an abode for criminal elements, who rob unsuspecting members of the public of their valuables, such as wallets and jewelleries ,including phones.”
The Chairman, however, confirmed the arrest of 16 miscreants connected with the attack, saying that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Zubairu Muazu, has directed that all those arrested be charged to court for prosecutions.
One of the arrested miscreants, Akeem Ajibola, 39, confirmed that it was one of their leaders, popularly called ‘Range’, that ordered them to attack personnel of the agency.
