Hoodlums set Orile police station ablaze, kill policeman

Hoodlums who infilterated #EndSARS protesters threw caution to the winds in Lagos Tuesday, setting ablaze the building of Orile Police Station.

A policeman, who also jumped the fence in order to escape being caught in the inferno, was reported to have landed in the hands of the hoodlums who stabbed him to death.

The modern police station, constructed to the UN model, was built by the Babatunde Raji Fashola’s administration in 2012.

It was gathered that the station was set ablaze by a gang, in protest of alleged high handedness by the Divisional Police Officer.

The hoodlums were said to have invaded the station in their large numbers but were repelled by the few officers that were on duty and locked the gate.

As the protesters retreated, the DPO was said to have hurriedly left the station, abandoning her subordinates to their fate.

According to an eyewitness, the gang immediately regrouped and started hauling the policemen with stones and broken bottles.

The hoodlums reportedly procured fuel, sprinkled it at the backyard of the building and lit it with fire.

As the fire raged, the suspected hoodlums were said to have gathered some empty bottles, filled them with the petroleum products and threw into the inferno to escalate it.

Our correspondent gathered that the policemen trapped in the building shot severally from inside the building to disperse the protesters in order to escape but to no avail.

According to the witness, the arsonists had a field day, as they operated unchallenged by security operatives.

The fire outbreak, which begun around 9.30 am is still raging as at the time of filing the report.

Efforts to get the reaction of the Commissioner of Police Lagos Command Hakeem Odumosu and the police public relations officer SP Olumuyiwa Adejobi proved abortive, as they declined calls put across to them.