NEWS FLASH: Witnesses and the police in Ilorin dispute the prisons’ version of events regarding a custodial breach.
This afternoon’s account of a near-fatal incident involving a custodial convoy belonging to the Nigerian Correctional Services, NCS in Ilorin stands in stark contrast to eyewitness accounts corroborated by the Kwara State Police Command’s account.
On the way to court to present controversial social media activist AbdulAzeez Adegbola (Tani Olohun) in a defamation suit, a vehicle in the convoy reportedly rammed into civilians along Oja Oba, Ilorin, sending six people to the hospital, as reported by Daily Independent.
Adegbulugbe SC Phillip Olumide, a spokesman for the NCS, said that an attempt was made to free Tani Oloun, the activist who ruffled many feathers in Ilorin metropolis due to a string of incidents that were misconstrued as offensive to the state’s dominant religious sentiment.
However, his account was largely hazy, which challenged credulity and gave the impression that NSC may be trying to deflect blame for the near-fatal accident from the service.
“Some hoodlums in a premeditated move at ja Oba roundabout boisterously made a tumultuous attempt to broke (sic) into the convoy of the custodial vehicles conveying high profile inmates, which include, AbdulAzeez Adegbola (Tani Olohun), to the court,” he said.
There were no reports of gunfire. In his words, however, the attempt “resulted in a pandemonium which saw the Correctional vehicle damaged, shattered, and battered.”
Additionally, he emphasised that nobody was hurt.
But there are other versions that contradict this one very strongly.
An accident involving a vehicle from the NCS custodial convoy and civilians, mostly commercial motorcyclists in the busy Ojo Oba traffic, was the source of the entire commotion, according to the newspapers’ painstaking investigation.
An angry mob attacked the car after the incident.
The NSC may have struck additional civilians in Oja Oba in an attempt to flee with the custodial package (suspects and defendants in their care).
It was learned that the van carrying the prisoners made it safely from the accident site to its final destination.
A group of Okada riders in Ilorin city staged a protest after the accident.
AbdulAkeem Sulaiman, who identified himself as the zone spokesperson for the state’s motorcyclists’ association, spoke with reporters about the incident and demanded that the government provide justice for the group’s members.
He claimed the victims of the tragedy were on their way to find work to support their families.
Sulaiman pleaded with the state government of Nigeria and the Nigeria Correctional Service to step in and ensure justice was served.
Kwara State Police Command Spokesperson SP Ajayi Okasanmi denied the allegation of a custodial breach by NCS, saying that the incident was the result of an accident-related mob action.
He promised that the police would do whatever was necessary to bring those responsible to justice.
