Police Ambush Civil Defence Officers In Niger, Aid Vandals

Some officers of the Nigeria Police have been accused of jeopardising efforts of the government to put an end to oil vandalism. It was gathered that on Monday, an anti-vandal team of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, were attacked by some policemen in Niger State.

Aproko247 learnt that the police officers allegedly ambushed the Civil Defence officers with the purpose to aid and escape of the vandals.

A source at the NSCDC gives account of the incident says that, “we got the information that there is likely to be vandalization activities by suspected vandals in the area, and our men switched to action as usual, on getting to the entrance of the bush, our men were stopped by police and told not to enter the bush.”

Witnesses said the incident occurred around 2am and alleged that the suspected vandals had contacted the police officers who then ambushed the team.

“Immediately the police got wind of the information, they laid siege for the Civil Defence officers and deflated the four tyres of the first vehicle, threatening to open fire on their patrol vehicles,” the one of the witnesses narrated.

“One of the policemen said we (NSCDC) had no right to operate in the area,” the source said. “The NSCDC men explained that it was their duty to protect all government facilities including oil pipelines.” He said police, knowing fully well that both NSCDC and police are supposed to be agents of Federal government and to protect infrastructures not to aid and abet vandals.

He wondered why Police officers take pleasure in always molesting NSCDC officers, saying that such incidents occur regularly.

Efforts to contact Niger State Police Command spokesmen of both the Police and NSCDC were unsuccessful as at the time of this report.