Police denies cover up in killing of sound engineer in Lagos

By DEBORAH AKPEDE

The Police Command in Lagos State has said that there is no cover-up in the case of Mr David Imoh who was killed and burnt by some motorcyclists on May 12 in Lekki.

This is contained in a statement signed by the Command’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Benjamin Hundeyin,  in Lagos on Monday.

Hundeyin said, “The attention of the Lagos State Police Command has been drawn to a write-up making the rounds on social media by a faceless DSS officer, claiming a cover-up by the Police in the unfortunate lynching of David Imoh on May 12.

“The Command wishes to debunk this write-up as nothing but a cunningly-crafted work of fiction, ill-intended by some unpatriotic persons and war mongers to cause disaffection, and possibly ethnic war among Nigerians.”

He said that  officers from the command  arrived the location of the crime on time to arrest the perpetrators and saved two other victims.

He said, “The Command again confirms that the Divisional Police Officer, Maroko Division,  arrived at the  crime scene, promptly arrested four suspects and rescued the  two other  persons under attack.

“The numerous arrests, some of whom made videos, can attest to this.

“It is, therefore,  ridiculous, frivolous and laughable that the suspects were allegedly paid a miserly N100,000 each to admit and take the fall for murder.

“Further investigation by the State Criminal Investigation Department led to the arrest of two other suspects.

According to him, all the six suspects were paraded before the media by the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, CP Abiodun Alabi,  on Friday, May 20.

“The seventh suspect, Usman Abubakar, 22 (not the mastermind), who literally poured petrol on the victim, was eventually arrested the next day.

“This brings the total number of arrested suspects to seven,” he said.

The PPRO  added that the Director of DSS in Lagos State confirmed to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police that the alleged officer was unknown to them, he equally confirmed that the DSS neither arrested nor handed over any suspect to the police.

The PPRO said that CP Alabi had urged Nigerians to disregard the write-up as a mischievous attempt by some fifth columnists to cause trouble within the country. (NAN)