An Assistant Superintendent of Police with the Lagos State Police Command was killed on Saturday morning during an altercation with a mob of commercial motorcyclists, known as Okada riders, in the Agege area of Lagos.

The officer, whose identity has not yet been released, was leading a team responding to an accident involving an Okada rider at WEMCO junction along Mobil Road when they encountered fierce resistance from the riders.

Reports indicate that the police were attempting to evacuate a truck that had struck an Okada rider, which led to unrest among the motorcyclists, who demanded the truck be set ablaze.

Benjamin Hundeyin, the spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command, described the officer’s death as “needless and uncalled for.”

He said that the police received a distress call at around 1:40 AM regarding the accident, where an Okada rider had collided with a trailer.

Initial investigations revealed that the accident had resulted in the death of the Okada rider, prompting the police response. Upon arrival, the officers found a large crowd of motorcyclists and were attacked while trying to remove the truck from the scene. In the ensuing chaos, the 46-year-old ASP was struck in the head and died on the spot, while the truck driver managed to flee.

Following the incident, five suspects have been arrested, and efforts to apprehend additional individuals involved in the attack are ongoing, according to Hundeyin.