The Etsu Lokoja, HRH Emmanuel Akamisoko Dauda-Shelika, Nyamkpa IV on Monday narrated how he jumped the fence to save lots of his life when some suspected hoodlums attacked his palace and burnt his car and property inside the premises.
The palace which was positioned on plot 306, New Format, Lokoja, was attacked by hoodlums at about 1:00am on Saturday, whereas the monarch narrowly escaped by scaling the fence.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the Nupe natives of Lokoja Improvement Union had been planning to host the second version of their end-of-the-year occasion, tagged: “Lokoja ‘24 Nupe Cultural Fiesta”, on Saturday, earlier than the incident occurred.
The occasion was nonetheless aborted as a result of unlucky assault round 1:00 am, when many Nupe natives from neighbouring states had began arriving on the eve of the occasion.
Narrating his ordeal to our correspondent who visited the scene on Monday, the Etsu Lokoja, mentioned: “It was round 1 am at evening that I heard an enormous bang on my door and I woke as much as test by the window, questioning what may have occurred.
“Then, I abruptly noticed wildfire popping out of my automobile because it had been set ablaze by attackers.
“I knew it was an assault on the palace, and couldn’t come out due to concern of being attacked. So, I managed to return out by the again door and scaled the fence to save lots of my life.
“Thereafter, I got here out to the street and realised that each one my neighbours in the neighborhood had been on the bottom making an attempt arduous to quench the fireplace. Sadly, the automobile was burnt in addition to different property inside it.”
He defined that members of the planning committee for the occasion had a gathering until round 11:30 pm on Friday earlier than departing to their varied houses, lamenting that it was unlucky that the cultural fiesta was aborted as a result of ugly incident.
Dauda-Shelika appealed to the federal government and safety companies to research the reason for the assault and convey perpetrators and their sponsors to justice.
He, nonetheless, appealed to the Nupe natives in Lokoja to keep away from any type of reprisal and proceed to stay peaceable, law-abiding and permit authorities and safety companies to conduct a radical investigation on the assault.
“We’re interesting to His Excellency, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, and safety companies to please use their good places of work to research this unlucky incident, and convey to justice whoever is anxious whether or not straight or not directly.
“We additionally need authorities to kindly go to our points by recognizing and grading the stool of Etsu Lokoja which had been in existence earlier than colonisation.
“By formally recognising and grading Etsu Lokoja stool, we all know the whole lot might be laid to relaxation as a result of that’s the energy of the federal government.”
When our correspondent visited the palace on Monday, a police officer on the bottom declined to make feedback as he claimed to not haven’t been authorised to talk on the matter.
Efforts to get the state police command to talk proved abortive because the Public Relations Officer, SP William Aya, didn’t take repeated calls to his cell quantity. He additionally didn’t reply to a textual content message despatched to him.
Spirited efforts to get the Safety Adviser to the state governor to talk on the event failed as he didn’t take repeated calls to his cell phone quantity. He didn’t reply to a textual content message despatched to him as of the time of filling this report.