REJOINDER

The attention of the Management of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Ondo State Command has been drawn to the news circulating in some online and electronic media that a Vehicle of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Ondo State Command crushed a motor cyclist to death and the driver ran away.

In the view of the foregoing, it has become imperative to inform members of the public the true position of what actually happened.
It was a case of an accident which involved a private vehicle that belongs to a personnel of the Corps, a Toyota Camry and a Commercial motor cyclist carrying two (2) passengers in the early hours of Tuesday, 28th August, 2018 along Ondo road Akure. The Officer involved immediately rushed the three (3) accident victims to the State Specialist Hospital and deposited the sum of N25, 000 for their treatment. Immediately the Command got the information about the accident, the State Commandant, Commandant Pedro Awili Ideba immediately directed the Disaster and Medical Unit to visit the victims in the Hospital where it was then gathered that one of the victims who was severely injured has been referred to the Trauma Centre, Ondo from where he was later referred to UCH Ibadan.

The following day, Wednesday, 29th of August, 2018, we were informed that the victim who was referred to UCH died en-route Ibadan. The Commercial motorcyclists within Akure metropolis then decided to use the opportunity to protest, setting burn fire on the road, in the process, hoodlums hijacked the protest and started shooting sporadically and destroying government properties. They destroyed a Government House Press crew Bus and another Toyota Hilux belonging to the Governor’s Task Force. Intelligence information reaching us revealed that the hoodlums were coming to destroy and set ablaze the premises of our State Command Headquarters. Immediately our Officers were mobilized to secure the entrances of our Office and the Government House.

As against the news going round in media, it was not an Official vehicle of the Command that was involved in the said accident and no Officer of the Corps was involved in the shooting of any civilian.

We want to call on the Media to embrace investigative journalism by verifying and cross checking information before releasing same to the public in order to avoid distortion of facts. Relying only on an eye witness account for news stories is against the canons of Journalism.

OLADAPO SAMUEL (SC)
Public Relations Officer,
NSCDC Ondo State Command.

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All I know is life is lost. The explanation can't raise the dead