•The burnt car
The Etsu Lokoja, HRH Emmanuel Akamisoko Dauda-Shelika, Nyamkpa IV yesterday narrated how he jumped the fence to save his life when some suspected hoodlums attacked his palace and burnt his vehicle and property within the premises.
The palace which was located on plot 306, New Layout, Lokoja, was attacked by hoodlums at about 1:00am on Saturday, while the monarch narrowly escaped by scaling the fence, reports The PUNCH.
It was gathered that the Nupe natives of Lokoja Development Union were planning to host the second edition of their end-of-the-year event, tagged: “Lokoja ‘24 Nupe Cultural Fiesta”, on Saturday, before the incident occurred.
The event was however aborted due to the unfortunate attack around 1:00 am, when many Nupe natives from neighbouring states had started arriving on the eve of the event.
Narrating his ordeal to our correspondent who visited the scene yesterday, the Etsu Lokoja, said: “It was around 1 am at night that I heard a big bang on my door and I woke up to check through the window, wondering what could have happened.
“Then, I suddenly saw wildfire coming out of my car as it had been set ablaze by attackers.
“I knew it was an attack on the palace, and could not come out because of fear of being attacked. So, I managed to come out through the back door and scaled the fence to save my life.
“Thereafter, I came out to the road and realised that all my neighbours in the community were on the ground trying hard to quench the fire. Unfortunately, the car was burnt as well as other property inside it.”
He explained that members of the planning committee for the event had a meeting till around 11:30 pm on Friday before departing to their various homes, lamenting that it was unfortunate that the cultural fiesta was aborted due to the ugly incident.
Dauda-Shelika appealed to the government and security agencies to investigate the cause of the attack and bring perpetrators and their sponsors to justice.
He, however, appealed to the Nupe natives in Lokoja to avoid any form of reprisal and continue to remain peaceful, law-abiding and allow government and security agencies to conduct a thorough investigation on the attack.
“We are appealing to His Excellency, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, and security agencies to please use their good offices to investigate this unfortunate incident, and bring to justice whoever is concerned whether directly or indirectly.
“We also want government to kindly visit our issues by recognising and grading the stool of Etsu Lokoja which had been in existence before colonisation.
“By officially recognising and grading Etsu Lokoja stool, we know everything will be laid to rest because that is the power of the government.”
When our correspondent visited the palace yesterday, a police officer on the ground declined to make comments as he claimed not to have been authorised to speak on the matter.
Efforts to get the state police command to speak proved abortive as the Public Relations Officer, SP William Aya, did not take repeated calls to his mobile number. He also did not respond to a text message sent to him.
Spirited efforts to get the Security Adviser to the state governor to speak on the development failed as he did not take repeated calls to his mobile phone number. He did not respond to a text message sent to him as of the time of filing this report.
