Murder Of Pipeline Defence Guards: Covering Their Tracks, Police in Lagos Beat ‘Confession’ Out of NSCDC Officer

One of the officers killed in a police ambush yesterday

The Police in Lagos have forced Olanrenju Gbedeogun, an officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), to make a statement that contradicts yesterday’s events where the police attacked officers of the corps, killed two of its officers, and freed some oil pipeline vandals.  


Sources at the Owutu Police Station in Ikorodu, Lagos State, informed SaharaReporters that the police authorities embarked on the measure to back-up their claim to the presidency that it was officers of NSCDC which attacked the police, and that the police knew nothing about the death of the two NSCDC men.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police is said to have personally supervised the forced video confession of Gbedeogun.
Earlier in the day, we learned that Gbedeogun was being tortured by the police to force him to provide the contradiction of the corps’ account of yesterday’s events.
A police officer at the Owutu Police Station who felt bad about the latest developments told us on condition of anonymity that if care was not taken urgently Gbedeogun would be dead before daybreak.  By that time, the torture victim had already spent over 24hrs in detention, contrary to the law.
Gbedeogun was one of the NSCDC officers that escaped from the vandalization scene where the police killed two of his colleagues.  He was found where he was hiding for fear of his life, and arrested by the police.
Our source said that in forcing the confession out of him, the police reminded Gbedeogun of the case in Edo State of Olaitan Oyerinde, Governor Adams Oshiomole's former aide who was allegedly killed by the police last year, suggesting that a similar fate could be his if he failed to cooperate with them.
According to eyewitnesses and NSCDC spokesman Okeh Emmanuel, the NSCDC officers were ambushed and killed by police officers attacked to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) after the NSCDC men arrested four pipeline vandals who were caught siphoning fuel.
As we reported yesterday, the vandals somehow escaped after the fatal attack, which led NSDCDC officials to suspect they were in cahoots with the police.
One wounded officer also said that the vandals made several phone calls to police officers before they opened fire on the NSCDC patrol van.  A police identity card, a gun and communication equipment belonging to one Inspector Sunday Gabriel were also retrieved from the scene of the attack.