Operatives of Operation Burst, and residents of Mokola area Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Sunday foiled hoodlums from burning down Mokola Police Station.
The hoodlums parading themselves as activists made frantic efforts to set the police station ablaze despite pleas from the police and others who intervened.
Although, some parts of the station were torched, the main building was intact at the time of filing this report.
A police Inspector attached to the station was attacked while a teenager was found dead after normalcy was restored.
Home and office appliances at the station were also carted away.
According to report, the hoodlums known as ‘Interior Boys’ carried out coordinated attacks on the Mokola community and its environs and made attempts to burgle shops.
They were resisted by youths of the community and security operatives.
A fracas that lasted for about six hours, however, broke out between the resisting youths and the hoodlums.
Sources said the hoodlums had stormed the Mokola police division at midnight and threatened to set it ablaze, alleging that officers of the division killed one of them.
The source who reportedly witnessed the incident also confirmed the death of the teenager who was hit by a stray bullet while the crisis was going on. No one could confirm who fired the shot that killed the teen.
It was learnt that the body of the boy was only brought to Mokola Police Station by the hoodlums, alleging that the police must have fired the shot that killed the unidentified teenager.
While the pandemonium lasted, some of the hoodlums attempted to burgle shops on the streets, a development that angered the youths of the area who later mobilised in their hundreds against the hoodlums.
At the time of filing this report, men of the State Joint Security outfit codenamed Operation Burst, Mobile policemen and officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were in the vicinity.
Sources claimed that some of the hoodlums have been apprehended.
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