ANXIETY in Festac as police kill 2 fuel black marketers

There was commotion in Festac Town, Lagos, following the killing of two fuel black marketers by a task force made of Police and Civil Defence officials. The killing of the marketers occurred around 1pm at the Forte oil petrol station also known as AP bus stop located a 21 Road, I close.

It was gathered that trouble began when some black marketers resisted efforts by the task force who were seizing petroleum products from road side vendors and giving them out free to motorcycle riders.

When the security agents got to Forte oil petrol station, they became overwhelmed by several black marketers and began to shoot sporadically to disperse the crowd, killing two persons in the process.

Angered by the conduct of the security officials, some persons tried to set the petrol station on fire as a means of venting their anger, but this made the Police Civil Defence officials fire more rounds into the air to disperse the angry crowd. One black marketer named Shina was shot in the buttocks by a stray bullet, while others persons suffered varying degree of injuries in the process of running to safety.

As at the time of writing this report, smoke was seen billowing from the Forte Oil petrol station, but it was unclear if it was the petrol station that was in flames or some other object as our reporter had to scamper for safety due to sporadic shooting by the police.