The leadership of Lokoja office of Abuja Electricity Comapnay (AEDC) may be courting trouble as three members of the seemingly already excited youths of Lokoja who are agitating for improved power supply in the city were arrested and taken into custody by the Kogi State Command of the Nigeria Police.
Our reporter, who rushed to the scene of the incident, gathered that in a seemingly arranged situation to rope some of the group’s leadership, the Lokoja AEDC invited three of them to a meeting preparatory to their meeting with the Headquarters billed to hold tomorrow, Tuesday, 14th March, 2017.
According to an eye-witness, members of the group arrived at the gate of the AEDC only to be prevented entrance by the security man on guard, demanding to know their identity before letting them into the compound.
One of the members then decided to call the Public Affairs Officer of the company on whose invitation the group went.
But as the call was on, the security guard then attempted to snatch the phone, leading to an altercation. As the squabble raged, the security on guard then made an attempt to hit one of the agitators and missed.
This led to the other one hitting the security, resulting in a small gash near the security man’s face and then, as though on standby, police officers, whose A Division is few kilometres from the AEDC showed up and arrested the agitators.
Confirming the story, a member of the group, Yabagi Mohammed, wondered why his fellow agitators were arrested despite going about their demands peacefully.
He called on the police to maintain neutrality as any attempt to arm-twist them was capable of exacerbating the issue, rather than quell it.
Our reporter gathered that it took the intervention of political and traditional leaders to assuage the youths who were already spoiled for war over the arrest of their innocent colleagues.
Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Rt. Honourable Umar Ahmed Imam, the Administrator, Lokoja Local Government, Hon Lawal Shiru and the Maigari of Lokoja all sent delegations to speak with leadership of the Police before the arrested agitators were released.
In fact, our reporter also saw the administrator arrive the Division where the arrested individuals were held.
Efforts by our reporter to speak with the leadership of AEDC in Lokoja proved abortive, as one of their staff informed who spoke in condition of anonymity said they were not allowed to speak with the media except directed by the national headquarters of the company in Abuja.
