Two security personnel were feared killed on Tuesday along the canal at Seventh Avenue, FESTAC Town, Lagos, when suspected pipeline vandals engaged some soldiers and policemen in the area in a bloody shootout.
The victims were said to be among the advanced security team drafted to monitor the activities of suspected vandals in the area. The security personnel stormed the canal to set free one of their colleagues that was allegedly kidnapped by the vandals.
The soldier that was kidnapped, according to a source close to the security team, was among those on surveillance.
Though the police claimed that nobody died in the shootout, a witness said that the people of the area started hearing gunshots as early as 5.00am.
A police source at the FESTAC Police Division told our correspondent that the combined armed team of military personnel including the Navy, Army and men from the FESTAC Area E Police Command, stormed seventh avenue to ward off attack from the oil thieves who have for long converted the area into a safe haven for their notorious activities.
Daily Trust also gathered that soldiers were drafted to the place owing to the scarcity of petroleum products and that the vandals had been having a field day loading fuel in kegs and ferrying it through boats in the area.
Confirming the development, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Office, Joe Offor, said that sporadic shooting was carried out by a combined team of heavily armed soldiers and policemen attached to the FESTAC division, in order to stop the activities of the suspected pipeline vandals.