The Lagos State Police Command has asked the Nigerian Army to produce the soldiers who tortured Inspector Monday Orukpe to death.
The command made the demand on Wednesday in reaction to Major General Umar Musa’s comment regarding last week’s confrontation.
Police officers at the CCECC gate along the Lagos-Badagry expressway had stopped vehicles to make way for a truck owned by the construction company,
Among the affected road users were dozens of the Military Ordnance School personnel who expressed anger over the delay.
The soldiers later allegedly attacked the police team including – an ASP, three Inspectors and one Sergeant – after Orukpe fired a shot.
They allegedly seized two Inspectors, as well as firearms, and took them to the Ojo cantonment where they beat them.
Musa, outgoing GOC 81 Division, said a policeman shot at a soldier which clipped him in the ear but narrowly missed his vital parts.
In a statement, Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin insists the comment was not the true account of the event.
Hundeyin said the fact remains that at the Trade Fair area, about thirty Privates of the Nigerian Army attacked five policemen for stopping vehicles.
“After the soldiers had brutalized the ASP leading the team, taken out his magazine, and abducted two Inspectors with their rifles, the next Inspector they attempted to attack fired a single shot into the air.
The command challenged the Army authorities to present the soldier allegedly shot.
Hundeyin advised Nigerians to disregard the claim, adding that command awaits the report of the panel of inquiry set up by the Army.
The police demanded the “the fishing out of the soldiers behind the torture and murder of Inspector Monday Orukpe, and the return of two AK47 rifles and three magazines carted away”.
A delegation led by Brigadier-Generals KN Nwoko, ML Abubakar (President Buhari’s ex-ADC), and IE Akpaumontia earlier paid a condolence visit to Commissioner of Police Abiodun Alabi.
