Irate protesters and Okada riders laid siege at police station in Akure

Tayo AFOLABI

Irate protesters and riders pursued a police officer who accidentally killed an Okada rider and laid siege at the station in front of a police division in Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Wednesday.

A bus suspected to be a security vehicle had knocked down a motorcyclist conveying a cocoa merchant, in the morning, along Arakale, in Akure.

Both the rider and the merchant were said to have died on the spot. The incident enraged the commercial motorcyclists and youth in the area.

However, a police officer reportedly attached to a filling station nearby was said to have fired shots in the air to scare the protesters away. A stray bullet hit and killed another motorcyclist.

The police officer who fired the deadly shot was said to have escaped into the Police A Division to take refuge, but the irate protesters and the riders pursued him and laid siege at the station.

The mob, mostly youth also set bonfires at the division and demanded the police officer be released to them.

They also hurled stones into the police premises and barricaded major roads.

Police officers, on sighting the angry protesters, escaped from the division’s barracks along with their families, ostensibly to avert a repeat of the #EndSARS experience.

While confirming the incident, the Ondo Police Public Relations Officer, Funmilayo Odunlami, said the situation has been put under control.

“There was an accident along Arakale where two persons were killed,” she said.

“One of our men while trying to rescue the driver of the car that killed an okada rider and a passenger was attacked and in the process, another okada rider was killed.

“The protesting riders mobilised to A Division to attack the place.”