Police Bullets Hit Teenage Girls In Delta
Two teenage girls reportedly sustained gunshot injuries from policemen attempting to stop a moving vehicle in Edjeba community, Warri South council area of Delta state.
The Nation learnt the incident occurred on Thursday afternoon around CAC Junction in the community as the operatives made frantic efforts to stop the occupant of a Toyota Camry suspected to be an internet fraudster.
It was gathered one of the girls was hit on the waist, while the other was struck on one of her hands.
The policemen, who drove in a gulf Jetta car with ‘Police’ inscription on the bonnet, reportedly shot at the tyres of the vehicle within the residential area.
Video footages of the incident have since surfaced on the internet.
One of the clips show people gathered around one of the teenage girls said to have been shot by the security officers.
She was then rushed to a hospital in a tricycle, while voices in the background say “what is the Police doing? They were shooting at the tyres”.
Another clip shows several persons, including the said policemen, gathered on a street.
The Police car and Camry are spotted, while one of the officers with arms folded was alleged to have fired the shots that hit the victims.
Sources alleged that a similar incident claimed the life of a young boy at the Praise Centre axis of Jakpa Road, Uvwie council area, in July.
He was said to have been hit by a Police van while they were chasing a suspected internet scammer.
A police patrol team attached to Safe Delta Command in the state, had on Wednesday arrested a music producer, Umukoro FearGod, alongside two artistes in Ughelli on the grounds that he was a “yahoo boy”.
He was, however released on Thursday morning after the Complaints Response Unit (CRU) of the Nigeria Police Force intervened on the matter with a promise to carry out further investigations.
Residents of Warri have taken to social media and other outlets to decry the recent actions of policemen, especially youths of the metropolis, calling for the intervention of the Delta State Government.
The Delta State Police Command however confirmed only a girl sustained injury in the incident, adding the team flagged down the vehicle on “reasonable suspicion.”
Its spokesperson, DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, said: “They were chasing a boy that they suspected and he refused to stop. They had to shoot at his tyres and it bounced back and hit a girl.
“The community people came out and as a result, the boy escaped with the vehicle.
“The girl was taken to a hospital by the police and is in stable condition. Nobody died.”
