Bomb scare: Police evacuate vehicles parked near stations

By Albert Akpor

LAGOS—Following the October 1 twin bomb blasts that claimed over 12 lives at Abuja,  police formations across the country have started evacuating abandoned vehicles parked near their premises.

Sources said visitors to police formations across the country are no longer allowed to park close to the stations as a result of the Abuja incident. Vanguard’s visit to the various formations in Lagos State clearly showed that vehicles hitherto parked and abandoned near police stations have been towed far away, while visitors were disallowed to park close to the stations as was the culture.

At the Zone 2 Command Headquarters, Onikan Lagos, all vehicles which littered the surroundings, including those that were faulty and abandoned by owners have been towed away to strategic locations, while traffic officers were seen frantically preventing visitors from parking at unauthorised spots. Similar visits to the state Command Headquarters in Ikeja,  Ojo, Festac, Ikeja Apapa and Itire Divisional headquarters, showed the same development with stern looking policemen ordering visitors to drive far away from their formations.

At the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Panti Yaba, the usual junkyard associated with numerous visitors to the department have been cleared.  Visitors were equally asked to drive straight to the adjacent local government authority office to park their vehicles.

A curious visitor who confronted some armed officers directing traffic on the new trend was simply told, “To be forewarned is to fore armed.” An officer told the curious visitor, “Don’t you know what is going in the country now? Bbombing, bombing everywhere? We do not know who is who; at Abuja the bombers used abandoned vehicles to perpetrate their heinous act that is why the OC has directed that no vehicle should be allowed to park close to the premises again.

“Besides, you can see that the OC’s office is directly facing the road and so if any of such happen, God forbid,  it might affect his office.”