The Delta State Police Command has declared Mr. Henry Baro, a suspended chairman of Uvwie local government area of the state wanted over the violent attack and looting of Shoprite Shopping Mall by armed hoodlums in Warri, last Friday.
Also declared wanted by the police is one Mr. Napoleon Odibu, who is the chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Effurun Motor Park in Warri.
Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Alkali Usman, who made the declaration, at a media briefing in Asaba, said police investigations into the attack revealed the complicities of the embattled politician and Odibu in the attack.
Usman said the duo allegedly mobilized the armed hoodlums who attacked the shopping mall, injuring customers and staff and destroying properties within the mall.
He said the destruction and looting of Shoprite was a fallout of an altercation between Baro and two Naval ratings who were security guards at the complex, which prompted Baro to invite hoodlums to the mall.
He said the hoodlums subsequently went on rampage after the looting, shooting sporadically and in the process, one Afor Emero was hit and killed by stray bullets.
The police boss, therefore, declared both Baro and Odibu wanted, urging members of the public with useful information that would lead to their arrest to contact the nearest police station in the state.
But in a reaction, Mr. Henry Baro faulted his indictment by the police over the attack, saying he had lost confidence in the police in the state.
The suspended council boss insisted he was not evading police invitation, but said that the state police command was being used by his political detractors to hunt him.
Baro appealed to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to wade into the matter to ensure that justice was done, arguing that he never sent anybody or group of persons to attack and loot the Shoprite Mall.
Though he maintained that the attack on the Shopping Mall was regrettable, but added that “I did not call people to attack Shoprite; Shoprite is a project I hold dear to my heart and I could not have masterminded its destruction.”
Baro blamed the attack on traders on the Effurun roundabout, who he said, cashed-in on the situation created when some youths came to rescue him from the hands of the Naval ratings, who attacked him.
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