Three men have been confirmed dead after they drowned while attempting to run from the police.
This happened early hours of Thursday morning, at Apongbon seaside, Lagos.
The three men, David, Femi and another of their friends had been running to avoid being arrested by the police. According to reports gathered from The Nation,the deceased and seven other of their friends were at the seaside around 1am when policemen alleged to be men of the defunct Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) stormed the place.
To evade arrest by the police, the men were said to have ran into the lagoon where they all hot trapped.
While six of the men were said to have been rescued later that day, three were recovered dead and one still missing at the time The Nation was reporting the news.
According to a social media user Olarenwaju Ganiu who shared details of the incident, the policemen were raiding the neighbourhood.
But the Lagos State Police Command has denied conducting any patrol in the community, appealing to the residents to come forward with their complaints.
Spokesman for the command, Bala Elkana, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) told The Nation Sunday night that the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the area had asked the people to describe the policemen or their vehicle but they couldn’t.
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“The problem we are having is that everything is blamed on SARS or police. I have told you we did not have any operation in that area on Thursday. We did not.
“This is a serious issue that no DPO will want to hide. They would have quickly notified the command and put up a defense for their action. But I have called the DPO, he said he also heard it and asked the people who the policemen were but no one could tell him.
Elkana added that, “At the moment, we do not even have record of the incident and we do not know exactly what happened. If people can assist us by bringing forth useful information, we will be able to investigate to know exactly what happened,”