Policemen at the scene where their colleagues shot two truck operatives turned to drinking immediately after the incident, FIJ can confirm.

In response to the violent protest by some truck drivers in the Mile 2 area of Lagos State on Tuesday morning, Idowu Owohunwa, Lagos State Commissioner of Police, had led a police contingent to the spot to restore public order.

The protesters blocked the entire 10-lane expressway connecting different parts of the state, activated bonfires on the road and created traffic standstill for some time.

When FIJ visited the location to obtain real-time information about the incident, eyewitnesses recounted how a police officer shot and killed a truck driver.

FIJ identified the driver’s name as Toheeb, although his alias, with which many of his colleagues knew him, was Girisi.

READ MORE: After Asking for Bribe, Lagos Policeman Shoots Truck Driver Dead

Owohunwa soon moved on, leaving a large team of policemen as well as some soldiers at the scene to continue monitoring the situation.

But some of the police officers derailed from standard practice while on duty, armed and fully clad in the Nigeria Police Force uniform.

While at the scene of the incident only hours after a police officer shot two truck operatives, FIJ saw some policemen drinking alcohol on duty — in violation of Section 100 (1) of the Nigeria Police Act, 2021, which prohibits police officers from consuming intoxicating substances or stimulants.

FIJ captured a group of three officers standing on a sidewalk some metres away from where the driver’s truck was parked. They were having a chitchat. One of them was sipping a popular gin from a sachet.

“While on duty, a police officer shall not take any intoxicating liquor, psychotropic substances, or stimulants, where he does, he shall be punished in accordance with the police disciplinary procedures,” the concerned Nigeria Police Act section states.

READ ALSO: We Traced Policemen Collecting Bribes From Interstate Food Transporters. An ASP Said the IGP Knew About It

FIJ’s effort to get Benjamin Hundeyin, the public relations officer of the Lagos Police Command, remained unsuccessful at press time. His phone number was not going through and he had not responded to a text message sent to him.

FIJ had earlier reported how a police officer murdered Toheeb Girisi, the truck driver, at that scene on the same day.