The Punch reports that seven operatives of the Department of State Services had been killed in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State. The security operatives were reportedly killed in the Ishawo Road area of Ikorodu on Tuesday during an encounter with suspected pipeline vandals. It was learnt that the incident happened around 7pm on Tuesday.
The vandals, who were suspected to be Ijaw youths, made away with the dead operatives’ weapons after killing them. The incident was the second of such attacks within two week by vandals on security operatives in the area. On August 30, four policemen from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad and Owutu Police Division were attacked. Three of the policemen died while the last one was injured. There were, however, different versions of how the DSS operatives were killed.
A resident of the area, Jimoh Adebiran, said the operatives had gone to a primary school in the community for an event when they had a confrontation with the vandals. Adebiran narrated:
“The whole thing started in a school where the officers had gone for a function. The vandals, who were at the school, thought the DSS men had come to attack them. There was an exchange of words. Later, the vandals opened fire on the DSS operatives and killed seven of them.”
Another resident, Omose Adedipe, said the operatives had come to the community to buy fuel for their official vehicles. Adedipe, a motorcycle rider, said the officers knew that fuel was sold at cheap rates in the community.
“They never had any plan to attack the vandals. But the Ijaw youths saw the guns in their vans and mistook their mission for something else, resulting in the bloodshed,” he said.
But a police source said the officers were in the community to apprehend the vandals after getting information that they had started to siphon fuel from a broken pipeline belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. He said the men were, however, spotted by the vandals, who opened fire on them. The source said:
“The officers went there between 7pm and 8pm after they got information that the vandals had started to siphon fuel from a broken NNPC pipeline. The vandals spotted them and opened fire on them. They set fire on their vehicles, took their guns and escaped with their corpses.”
The DSS could not be reached for comment as the security outfit had yet to appoint a public relations officer to replace the former spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar.