Tragedy as fuel explodes, kills man, two daughters
According to eyewitness account, the task force officials had tried to restore sanity, but were repelled by the dealers, who were also struggling to buy fuel to sell to desperate motorists. An eyewitness who identified himself as Kelvin said: “The operatives had tried in vain to confiscate some of the products already purchased by these black market dealers. “The dealers teamed up to resist any attempts either to arrest them or to give away their products to motorists free of charge. “In the process, the operatives started firing indiscriminately into the air to dispel them but things went awry, thus exacerbating an already tense situation that led to the shooting of Dijo and three other persons. Immediately the incident happened, angry youths quickly mobilised to retaliate but the operatives were already whisked away to safety. “The mob made bonfire, even as the corpse of deceased was dumped on the road by the protesters. “They made attempts to set the filling station on fire, but were prevented by teams of policemen deployed from both the FESTAC Police Division and the Area E Police Command.” The state Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmos, however debunked claims that policemen shot and killed the victim. She said: “There is no case of such. The report on ground at AP filling station is that some NSCDC men in a patrol vehicle had scuffle with some men at the filling station which led to indiscriminate firing. “One person was shot dead while three others were severely injured. The area commander, Area E, is on ground restoring normalcy, while the command has commenced investigation to identify the civil defence operatives that were involved.” In Ogun State, operatives of NSCDC yesterday picketed fuel dealers who sell the product above the official pump price of N86.50k within the Abeokuta metropolis. The NSCDC officials, who were armed, began their operation around 9 a.m. and invaded some of the filling stations, noted for dispensing the product above the official pump price. While attendants at two filling stations who deliberately hoarded the product were arrested, three other filling stations which had the product but refused to sell were compelled to resume sales. At Ita – Eko, workers at the MAAN IPC filling station, which got product the previous night, took to their heels upon sighting the NSCDC anti – hoarding task force to escape being forced to dispense to customers. About three of the workers were however, arrested few hours later by the NSCDC officials who had laid siege for them to resurface. They were compelled to sell to motorists, who had been waiting anxiously
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