How Okota DPO Averted Bloody Ethnic Clash During Election

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

The prompt intervention of the police officers at Ago Palace led by the DPO, CSP Francess Oyin, averted what would have been a bloody ethnic clash between the Igbo and Yoruba residents during last Saturday’s election.

This was confirmed by the residents of Ago Palace who commended the DPO and her team for living up to expectation during the tumultuous moment.
P.M.EXPRESS gathered that after the OPC leader, identified as one Demola Adeleke, was stoned, he became unconscious and was on the ground before the DPO who was on patrol to monitor about 40 polling units in the area with her officers rescued him and took to hospital. By then information had gone round that Adeleke had been stoned to death by the Igbo residents for disrupting the election in the area.

According to the residents, the police officers were busy patrolling to ensure that there was peace at the polling units and the area before the DPO got information that Adeleke and his group had disrupted the election at that particular polling unit. It was said that the DPO immediately contacted the Area Commander, Zone D Mushin and requested for more hands because of the tension the mayhem had caused in the area. The residents said that when the DPO did not see any signal from the Area Commander, she made a radio call, mobilized her officers and went to the scene of the incident where she met Adeleke on the ground in a pool of blood.
The DPO rushed Demola to nearby Grace Valley Medical Centre at Ago Palace Way owned by Dr. Barth Ofoegbunam. The doctor then referred him to LUTH for emergency where he was eventually revived.

They said by then the news of Demola’s death has spread and the OPC members had started mobilizing their members for a reprisal attack on the Igbo residents in the area before another information went round that Demola was indeed alive. It was gathered that the news prompted the decision by the police at Ago Palace Division to invite the stakeholders which really calmed the situation.

The three suspects arrested over the mayhem were taken away by the Area Commander and were said to have been detained at Zone D Mushin, Lagos.

P.M.EXPRESS investigation revealed that the purported rumour that one person was killed at the carnal side of Ago was not true.
According to the residents, the AIG in charge of Zone 2 and the Lagos State Commissioner of the Police visited the place and it was discovered that the information was false.
On the issue that police did not respond when the incident happened, the residents said it was not true as the police were patrolling in the area with their only two vehicles; moving from one place to another to monitor the entire area before one unit out of the 40 units in the area experienced the disruption. They urged the public to disregard such rumours because they were on ground and knew what happened on that day.