Policeman shoots tout at Lagos airport •Gunmen kill one in Onitsha

Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Mr. Umaru Manko
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A police corporal shot a suspected tout on Thursday night for refusing to give him N500 at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

The policeman, whose identity is yet to be released by the Airport Command of the Nigerian Police Force, was said to have been shot in the stomach at the public car park of the MMIA.

The money was said to have been given to the suspected tout by a passenger whom he had assisted to push his baggage trolley from the arrival terminal to the car park.

Eyewitnesses said the intestines of the suspected tout spilled out from the gunshot wound and he was rushed to Beesam Hospital, near the airport, by security operatives.  

Saturday PUNCH learnt that Aviation Security officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria immediately alerted the airport police command and the corporal was subsequently arrested.

The General Manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN, Mr. Yakubu Dati, confirmed the development. 

But said it could not be confirmed if the victim was dead or not.

“The man was shot by a policeman. He has been rushed to the hospital. The policeman has been arrested. You know, as it is with anything involving a bullet, only a medical doctor can confirm now if the person was dead,” Dati said.

The Commissioner of Police, Airport Command, Mr. Olatunji CaulCrick, also confirmed the development. He said that the circumstances surrounding the shooting was still being investigated, adding that  the suspected tout were responding to treatment.

CaulCrick said, “The matter is being investigated. The man that was shot is a suspected tout. We have arrested the policeman who shot him. He will explain the circumstances that led him to shoot the man. There are guides and procedures for using firearms. We don’t know if the man in question exhibited some threats.”

Unconfirmed reports said the corporal was invited to the car park by a woman who had complained that some touts were harassing her.

The policeman, who was identified by airport officials as Mr. Emmanuel Agabi, was said to have followed the woman to the car park where he met some of the touts that had prevented the woman from moving her car.

Agabi was said to have asked the woman to move her car in the presence of the touts and she offered him N500 in return.

Unconfirmed reports said the policeman did not accept the money from the woman.

After the woman had left, the touts, led by one Chuks, allegedly challenged Agabi for stopping them from collecting money from the woman.  The situation, it was learnt, forced the latter to shoot Chuks in the stomach.

As at 6 pm on Friday, unconfirmed reports said the gunshot victim was still alive.  

Meanwhile, suspected armed robbers operating on a motorcycle shot and killed an unidentified man and injured another in Onitsha on Friday.

The gunmen were said to have trailed their victims, who were in a commercial tricycle, to Upper New Market Road,  where they opened fire on them, killing one on the spot while another sustained serious injuries.

Eyewitnesses said the assailants sped off immediately they hit their victims without collecting anything from them.

“Maybe because policemen from Central Police Station were coming after them, but the only thing I know is that the other man that died was shot at a close range and he died instantly,” a source said.

However, the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the Central Police Station in Onitsha, Mr. Tope Fasugba, led a team of policemen to the scene of the shooting and gave the suspects a chase but failed to apprehend them.

Fasugba said his men could not shoot at the fleeing gunmen in order to avoid a situation where innocent persons could be hit by stray bullets.

“Our hands were tied because Onitsha is highly populated and innocent people could be hurt. That was why they escaped when we went after them. They moved faster with the help of commercial motorcycles and were able to escape. But we shall get them,” he said.

The DPO said the motive for the killing was yet unknown, adding that the police would be on their trail.

 He said the injured victim of the attack was taken to a hospital for treatment, while the body of the deceased was deposited at a mortuary.