Oyo oldest police station razed

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Two police stations have been attacked at Agodi-Gate, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

They are Idi-Ogungun Police Station, which was set ablaze and Agodi II Police Station that was vandalised.

The Idi Ogungun Police Station is the oldest police facility in the old Western Region.

It was built in 1929.

The attack on the facility followed a pandemonium that erupted after a commercial motorcyclist was allegedly shot by an official of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCS) at Agodi-Gate.

When The Nation visited the scene of the crisis on Wednesday, security operatives were seen there to prevent attack on the correctional facility.

They included the state operated joint anti-crime task force team code-named ‘Operation Burst’, officials of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, soldiers and warders.

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The media was on Wednesday awash with claims that the crisis was caused by policemen, who allegedly killed a commercial motorcyclist, but police spokesman Olugbenga Fadeyi denied the allegation, saying they were not involved.

NCS Oyo Command spokesman Olanrewaju Anjorin absolved the police of any involvement in the fracas, noting that the police were only called to help beef up security before the issue got out of hand.

Trouble started when commercial motorcyclists operating at the Agodi-Gate were prevented from parking or picking passengers at the entrance of the correctional facility.

Sources said a shot was fired, which killed a commercial motorcyclist, a development which sparked off the violence on Tuesday.

Another account has it that the man who was allegedly killed was not a commercial motorcyclist, but a trader in the area, who came around on Tuesday to thank his colleagues for their support when he was on the sick bed for about three months.

He was said to have come out for the first time in the last three months.

A source said hoodlums took advantage of the fracas to set the Idi-Ogungun Police Station ablaze.

Attempts to get the reaction of the NCS spokesman Anjorin on the latest development were futile, as he did not pick his calls at press time.