Inside Nigeria

‘Hoodlums beat up firefighters’ for responding late in Oyo

BY Ayodele Oluwafemi

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Hoodlums reportedly attacked personnel of the Oyo State Fire Service who were responding to a fire incident in the Saki area of the state.

During the attack, the hoodlums “injured three personnel” of the agency.

In an interview with NAN on Thursday, Sarafa Akintola, the zonal officer of the fire service, said the agency received a distress call at 7:39 am on Tuesday about a petrol tanker that crashed and caught fire at Idigba in Saki area.

Akintola, who was one of the victims, said the fire truck of the agency refused to start because the battery was weak.

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He added that the personnel had to seek for another battery in order to get to the accident scene.

“On getting to the scene, some hoodlums started throwing stones at us saying we came late, and they prevented us from performing our duty,” he said.

“We were in a pool of blood and three out of four of us were injured, but we managed to escape with the vehicle.”

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The zonal officer said the injured officers were taken to a nearby hospital by officers of the Saki divisional police station, for treatment.

He urged Nigerians to be patient with firefighters during service delivery.

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