2 banks torched after policeman kills tanker drivers in Lagos [Photos]

isaac dachen

July 19, 2017 3:52 PM

Two commercial banks have been set ablaze in the Apapa area of Lagos State by irate tanker drivers after a policeman shot three of their colleagues dead.

Lagos Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni

Two commercial banks have been reportedly set on fire by an angry mob after

Eyewitnesses report that the incident which happened on the morning of Wednesday, July 19, 2017, saw the Diamond and Sterling Banks on the street torched by irate trailer drivers who were out to avenge the murder of their colleagues by the police officer who was said to be attached to one of the banks.

ALSO READ: "In Edo: Police Inspector arrested for alleged extra-judicial killing"

It was gathered that the policeman allegedly had an altercation with the drivers after they had indiscriminately parked their vehicles in front of the Diamond Bank and in the cause of the argument, the trigger-happy officer reportedly shot the drivers and they died on the spot.

The incident which threw the area into a pandemonium was not helped by other drivers who protested the murder of their colleagues by taking laws into their hands and set the adjoining banks on fire while also destroying properties belonging to them said to be worth millions of Naira.

The trailer drivers were forced to protest the death of their members by attacking the bank for refusing to hand over the policeman to them. The drivers, therefore, moved to set the bank ablaze, destroying properties and other valuables.

An eyewitness who spoke on the incident said that after shooting the tanker drivers, the policeman ran into the Diamond Bank.

"After shooting the drivers, the driver shot sporadically into the air while he ran into Diamond Bank.

Other trailer and tanker drivers in the area quickly regrouped and demanded that the bank should hand over the policeman to face jungle justice, but the refusal of the bank proved fatal as the mob set the bank ablaze."

ALSO READ: "Extra Judicial Killing: Kogi on fire as police shoot 2 youths during protest"

The killer-policeman was said to have escaped before the mob could get to him and it only took policemen from the Rapid Response Squad [RRS], Anti-riot squad and policemen from the Area 'B' Command as well as operatives from the Nigerian Navy Ship BEECROFT who were deployed to the scene to bring sanity to the area and nip the raging crisis in the bud.

isaac dachen