Lagos State Police begin manhunt for Ikorodu attackers

The Lagos State Police Command has
commenced aggressive manhunt for suspected
militants who invaded Igbolomu and Ishawo
areas of Ikorodu last Friday and unleashed
mayhem on residents.
The gunmen, who were alleged to be from the
Niger Delta, were said to have come in through
the waterways close to the communities and
started shooting sporadically, a development
which led to the death of some people while
others sustained various degree of injuries.
Addressing newsmen on Saturday, Lagos State
Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, said
an aggressive and massive manhunt had already
commenced against the suspected militants,
adding that the investigation was going on
smoothly.

Owoseni, who was personally at the scene of the
incident moments after the attack, also denied
conflicting media reports as to the actual
number of people that were killed by the
attackers.
The CP disclosed that the Divisional Police
Officer (DPO) in charge of Owutu responded with
his men almost immediately after he was
alerted, adding that mobile policemen were
swiftly deployed to be patrolling the affected
areas.
“The DPO in Owutu went to Igbolomu and the
surrounding communities and as of the time he
got there, he saw everybody running in panic and
it could be maybe because of that immediate
response the militants had fled the place and
while moving round, he later found six corpses of
the people that were killed and the police took
over those corpses out of which two were
immediately released to their families who said
they want to go and burry according to Islamic
rights, while we took the remaining four to the
morgue.
“That was how we covered that place until we
got support and reinforcement from the Nigerian
Army who came to stay with us.
“I can confirm that the causality is six and no
family till now has come out even while I was
there to say that they have extra corpses apart
from the ones that were recovered by the police
in Owutu that immediately went to that place
when the incident happened,” the CP said.

Owoseni said before now, the police had been
making arrests in the areas, while the militants
who committed the latest atrocity were being
hunted, expressing optimism that they would
soon be apprehended.
“What people must know is that this is not an
investigation or operation that you can just say
one plus one. The guys are taking advantage of
the creeks. They hit and run to the creeks and
also use the wee hours in the night to carry out
that operation. Anywhere in the world, the
military and police hardly operate in the night
and so they have been taking advantage of that
and that is why we have now emplaced a
permanent standby points in all the four areas
that we have identified as where they are coming
from,” Owoseni said.
He added that the occupation of the standby
points would be sustained by security forces,
while a permanent solution would be found to
the impunity that was being carried out by the
pipeline vandals.
SIGNED
DOLAPO BADMOS
PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER
LAGOS STATE POLICE COMMAND
JUNE 26, 2016