Sporadic gunshots injured many in Lokoja

From Ahmad Ibrahim, Lokoja

The Kogi State Correspondent of The Sun Newspaper in Lokoja, Mr. Emmanuel Adeyemi has been shot, following a sporadic gunshots across the ancient city, thereby creating panic and chaotic confusion in the state capital.
Adeyemi was on his way to the state secretariat of the Nigerian Union of journalists in Lokoja yesterday morning, when he was hit by a bullet, just a few metres from the gate of the press centre.
The drive-by armed thugs equally shot another passerby in the metropolis, whose name could not be immediately ascertained, who was said to have just arrived from Benue and was caught up in the middle of the mayhem that has caused pandemonium across the town.
The sporadic gunshots in Lokoja the Kogi state capital followed resumption of looting in another warehouse at the Zone 8 headquarters of the Nigeria Police, even as the state command of the police force seemed to be helpless in tackling the matter.
A similar incident was said to have happened overnight when the headquarters of the state Agricultural Development Project’s warehouse was invaded, while several bags of fertilizers were carted away, even as some hoodlums were said to have been apprehended in the process.
A large crowd of youths have gathered at the roundabout very close to the warehouse as early as 7am in the morning after exhausting the palliatives at Kpata warehouse the previous day, when they got information about the existence of another warehouse around the Zone 8 headquarters of the police force.
As at the time of filling this report sporadic gunshots rent the air while all shops along Murtala Mohammed way, Lokoja were closed with people scampering for safety in different directions.
Similarly, parents hurriedly rushed to schools to collect their children while those who went to the markets for various transactions abandoned their missions and returned home, even as many people were said to have sustained various degrees of injuries, all in an effort to avoid the deadly sporadic gunshots.
When contacted, the state police public relations officer, William Aya said that the gunshots were from the hoodlums who were scaring people away to enable them have free access to the warehouses located in the metropolis.
He said that the shootings were not from the Police, and assured that those responsible for the confusion in the town were being trailed and would be brought to book shortly.