Ondo Police Lose Two Officers, Parade 18 Suspects

Ondo Police Lose Two Officers, Parade 18 Suspects

By James Sowole

The Ondo State Police Command, yesterday said two of its officers were killed by hoodlums during the last week’s EndSARS protests, which degenerated into violence, arson and looting.

The state Commissioner for Police , Mr. Bolaji Salami, disclosed this yesterday, while speaking with journalists, during the parade of 18 suspects arrested in connection with destruction and other criminals activities, during the protests.

Salami said 18 suspects were arrested in various parts of the state and had made conventional statements, adding that they were caught in the act.

The commissioner said the two police sergeants, were killed in Ondo and Ore towns.

He said the one killed at Ore, ran into the hoodlums, while riding on his motorbike and was lynched.

Salami said the sergeant that was killed in Ondo City, ran into the hoodlums around the palace road and was killed and burnt along with his car.

The commissioner, who highlighted some of the criminal activities of the hoodlums in the state during the protest, said the carnage suffered by the Police command in the state, cannot be estimated.

Salami appealed to the people of the state never to lose faith in the policing architecture of the state under his supervision.

He said: “I am fully committed to policing you and the entire state with the best of my ability and certainly with respect to human rights. Let us put behind us the events of the past weeks and focus on our ability to support the police as it was in the beginning.”

The commissioner commended all sister security agencies for standing by the police in time of crises.

Among the 18 suspects that were paraded, two were females that were arrested allegedly in connection with arson and looting at the state secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Giving the breakdown of the arrested suspects, Salami said three suspects were arrested at Owo, four in connection with the APC Secretariat arson and looting, two in Ore, six in connection with the attack on Oda Police Division while three were arrested by men of 32 Artillery Brigade, Nigerian Army, Akure.

The commissioner said apart from other criminal activities of the suspects, the command was yet to recover a pistle belonging to the Oda Division with eight rounds of ammunition, a magazine loaded with 30 rounds of AK-47 ammunition, allegedly carted by the hoodlums.

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