By ADEREMI BAMGBOSE

Ondo State Police Command, on Sunday, said that it was not responsible for the death of three indigenes of Kajola in Odogbo Local Government Area of the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the victims, including a village head, were reportedly crushed to death on Saturday evening by a hit-and-run driver on their motorcycle at Kajola area on Lagos-Ore expressway.

The command’s Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Funmilayo Odunlami, in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said that the victims’ death was due to police recklessness but owing to flouting of traffic rules.

She said that the deceased used a motorcycle without headlamp, adding that they were riding on a one-way route, thus leading to a head on collision with a speeding vehicle.

“The death of the victims was not caused by the police, has been circulated. They died as a result of flouting traffic rules.

“The deceased were riding a motorcycle with no headlamp on a one-way route and had a head-on collision with a speeding vehicle. They have died now and are not able to tell the story.

“Youths should find a way of registering their grievances. Lynching police officers or burning down police station at every slightest opportunity is barbaric.

“Police are there to protect them, while there are several emergency numbers through which they can report issues to the police headquarters. They should not take laws into their hands,” Odunlami said.

NAN reports that youths in the area had accused the police of extortion at a check point in the area which they described as illegal.

An eye witness, Funmi Olowogboye, told newsmen that the accident occurred while the police officers were trying to extort the victims when a speeding vehicle trying to escape arrest crushed them to death.

NAN reports that the youths had, in their large numbers, swooped on Kajola police station with the corpses of the deceased, even as they attempted to burn it down.

It took the combined efforts of police operatives and other security agents to prevent the youths from lynching the personnel and raze the police station and restore normalcy in the area.

NAN also reports that the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Oyeyemi Oyediran had, upon assumption of duty, ordered immediate dismantling of all illegal road blocks and checkpoints on Ore-Benin expressway. (NAN)

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