Police arrest 9 over Igarra shootings
Edo, Headlines, Nigerian Police, State News Friday, January 17th, 2014From TONY OSAUZO,Benin
The Edo police command has confirmed the arrest of nine persons following the fracas over the festival in which two youths were shot in Igarra community, Akoko-Edo local government area of the State. Confirming the arrest, the Commissioner of Police, Mr Foluso Adebanjo, said the suspects would be transferred to the state command, adding that the victims of the gun shots were responding to treatment.
He said the command would not tolerate people taking the laws into their hands, and that the suspects would be paraded before the media on Monday.
It was learnt that some youths allegedly loyal to the Otaru of Igarra, Emmanuel Adachie Saiki 11, ambushed some others and shot Majebir Oseni and Sule Kassim, in an attempt to enforce a ban of the Ekuochi masquerade festival.
The victims of the shooting are said to be receiving treatment at different private hospitals in Igarra, but the Otaru is blaming the police for the incident.
“I believe the incident could have been avoided but the police did not manage the situation well. If the police had responded promptly and did their job well, the crisis would not have happened.
“A councillor from ward 11 had informed me that some youths in the community were planning to go ahead with the Ekuochi festival banned since 1986 because of its attendant violence, the Divisional Police officer (DPO) allowed himself to be cajoled by one of the youths and lured police men away from the venue of the festival, hence the crisis which is an unfortunate incident. And I want to blame the police authority for the crisis,” the Otaru said.
Reacting to the claim by the Monarch, the Divisional Police Officer(DPO) in charge of Akoko-Edo, Hilary Edom, denied the allegation, saying that he promptly responded to the Otaru’s information by mobilising his men to the venue of the planned festival.
He explained that after a brief dialogue with the youths, and having identified one of their leaders, who pledged to make an undertaking that the festival would be violent-free, the police returned to the office for its documentation.
“It was while we were still in the process of documentation, that report reached me that some youths had laid ambush for unsuspecting youths shooting, two persons in the process.
“The venue of the shooting is different from the venue of the planned festival where my men were still stationed and it was because my men were still on ground that the situation did not escalate out of hand”, Edom said.
Meanwhile, High Chief Gabriel Ashipa, the Oshimdase of Igarra, who is Head of the Anonyete Clan, from whose house the shot victims belong, denied that the festival had been banned.
Threatening a reprisal action should the concerned authority, especially the state government refuse to promptly act, Ashipa said the incident was a repeat of what happened in 2012 during the community’s age group festival.
-Sunwp_posts
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