Pandemonium in Apapa as Policeman kills trailer driver over parking argument
There were total lockdown within Apapa Central Business District (CBD) following the gunning down of a trailer driver by a Policeman attached to one of the new generation banks (name with held) after a heated argument bordering on space and parking of the vehicles close to the bank.
It would be recalled that Apapa had been notorious for articulated vehicles and parking rascality over the years and the problem seems to have been further fuelled by the ongoing partial closure of the Wharf road for reconstruction.
Analysts say the major cause of the parking crisis cannot be unconnected with the delay in completing the ultra modern trailer park under construction by the government in front of Tincan Ports, Apapa.
Several government officials have been assuring that the park will be delivered soon, but no work is ongoing at the massive site since this year.
The death immediately lead to coordinated efforts by the driver s to lynch the killer-Policemen who quickly ran into the bank premises.
But as efforts to get him out from the bank failed, the angry mob resorted to burning down the bank.
The inferno that ensued however touched another bank along the axis leading to total breakdown of law and order.
As at press time, Business Hilights gathered that the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni had mobilized riot Police detachment to the vicinity to hold peace.
Details gathered by our correspondent showed that both Sterling Bank and Diamond Banks were touched.
The Lagos state Police Command has arrested a police officer who shot and killed a tank driver along Burma Road in Apapa area of the state on Wednesday.
The Policeman was arrested alongside 18 suspected hoodlums who allegedly set a commercial bank ablaze.
The command’s spokesman, ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole in a statement said the command received a distress call from the Chief Security Officer, CSO of a new generation bank located in the area.
Famous-Cole noted in the statement that the caller said hoodlums were trying to take laws into their hands by setting the bank ablaze following the shooting of a tanker driver by a policeman attached to the bank after an altercation.
He said operatives of the command including the Area Commander Apapa, the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) and other security agents quickly mobilized to the scene to take charge of the situation.
He added that but for the quick intervention of the Police, the hoodlums would have wreaked the statement further explained that the fire at the banks was put out by the police and other security agencies as the tanker driver identified as Azeez was immediately rushed to the hospital for treatment and was confirmed dead upon arrival at the hospital.
