Naval Officers Kill Three In Ogun State

There was tension in Arepo, in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State on Wednesday after some naval officers allegedly killed three residents.

Two of the officers at the back cocked their guns, which angered the protesters, who dared them to shoot.

A community leader, however, intervened by appeasing the protesters to allow the military officers to go.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Ogun State, DSP Muyiwa Adejobi, said the police had begun investigations into the deaths.

He said the police were also making arrangements to remove the corpses and deposit them in a mortuary.

He said, “The Ibafo division of the command got the information that three people were taken by some men at a beer parlour on Sunday around 8pm, and they were shot dead and their corpses were found in Arepo. We are investigating and we are going to get the perpetrators.

“Meanwhile, the Divisional Police Officer is trying to get an ambulance to see how we can evacuate the corpses.  The Deputy Commissioner of Operations has sent more policemen to the community to assist the DPO to forestall a breakdown of law and order.”

The acting Director, Defence Information, Brig. Gen. Rabe Abubakar, denied the involvement of military officers guarding the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s pipelines in Arepo in the killing.

He said pipeline vandals who had run out of business because of the activities of the military were out to blackmail them.

He said, “For more than one month now, we have not had any operation in that area, so how could we have killed those people? How can the troop deployed for Operation Awase kill them? How do you even believe that members of the armed forces of Nigeria would descend so low as go to meet people in a beer parlour to abduct them?

“The issue is that before our coming, there had been series of vandalism and siphoning of fuel in Arepo. Some people had made a lot of money before the government intervened and said no more of that due to the economic recession. It is this people, that are trying to blackmail us. Anyone saying we killed anybody should produce evidence. Who did it?

“However, as a security agency that is supposed to protect lives and property, we are concerned about the loss of lives. Last time, they ambushed our officers and some of them were killed; but did anybody make noise? The reason is that we take that as part of the risks of our job. People should not be using the media to achieve whatever is their plot.”