From Ameachi Prosper (The New Diplomat’s Delta State Correspondent)
Th Executive Director, Finance and Administration of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, (DESOPADEC) Hon. John Nani, has narrowly escaped death while his security aide, a policeman was killed by another trigger happy policeman.
The director was said to have been the target of a mobile policeman but his orderly waded in to save him while the bullet hit him on the thigh.
The incident occurred in the Ajogodo area of Sapele, Delta State late Sunday.
Eye witness said the police orderly whose identity was yet to be determined as at the time of filing this report, met his untimely death when he tried to intervene in a feud between his boss and another police officer allegedly attached to an oil company in Sapele.
A source said that trouble started when a Toyota Hilux vehicle, ferrying staff of Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, rammed into the vehicle the DESOPADEC Director was driving close to Zenith Bank at Ajogodo at about 7pm on Sunday.
“Nani was driving and the policeman was in another vehicle behind when the Hilux conveying staff of Seplat tried to overtake him, in the process, Nani car was brushed.
“The DESOPADEC Director stopped and was checking the damage on his vehicle when the trigger police officer alighted from their Hilux and slapped him, and it was in that process that the policeman attached to Nani intervened and he was shot at the thigh.
The source said it took the intervention of other policemen at the scene to tamed cop who shot sporadically on the ground before disarming him and rushing the injured orderly to the hospital, where he died at about 11pm.
However, Nani, the immediate past commissioner for Environment in the state who recounted his ordeal, said that the shot was meant for him, but his orderly took the bullet.
“The policeman actually pointed the gun at me, wanting to kill me, they bashed my vehicle from behind and I came down to check it, that was when he came down and slapped me before corking his gun and shoot.”
He said for the timely intervention of the policemen around, who intervened swiftly, the killer cop would have killed more people.
The Delta State Police command spokesperson, Onome Onowakpoyeya could not be reached for reaction but a police officer in Sapele who prefers anonymity confirmed the incident saying that the police officer involved in the shooting has been arrested while, “preliminary investigations are going on.”
