Mob burns down cop station
2005-01-14 16:52
Lagos - An angry mob burned down a police station in southwestern Nigeria after police shot dead a driver at a checkpoint, said a police spokesperson on Friday.
Fatai Kinyomi of the police said the driver was killed on Thursday in Uromi, on the outskirts of Benin City.
Nigerian newspapers reported that the incident occurred after the driver refused to pay a 40 naira (about R1.75) bribe at the checkpoint, an allegation Kinyomi would neither confirm nor deny.
Kinyomi said:"The motorist died... and his colleagues mobilised and went on the rampage, looting the police station" before burning it down on Thursday, calling the riot "barbaric".
He said none of the rioters was arrested, and police were looking for the officer who shot the driver. It was not clear whether the officer was in hiding.
'Police seen as offenders'
"The situation was calm on Friday, and authorities were investigating the incident."
Nigerian newspapers reported that suspects jailed in the police station were freed in the riot, and a police officer's home was burnt down.
Police killings - many of them labelled "accidental" - are common in Nigeria, as is corruption in Africa's most-populous nation of more than 126 million.
Many Nigerians criticise police for demanding bribes to supplement their low salaries, and not doing enough to combat high levels of armed crime.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said in his human rights report: "Nigerians see the police not as a friend, but as offenders and agents of human rights violations in the country."
- SAPA