There was tension on Monday after a yet-to-identified security guard went into a coma after he was beaten up at the Tanisewun Estate in the Igbogbo area of Ikorodu, Lagos State.
The incident happened after a car was allegedly stolen in the area he was securing.
Our correspondent gathered that the owner of the car had stepped out to pick up something in his car in the morning when he discovered that it was no longer where he parked it.
He was said to have looked around on the street before he realised that it had been stolen.
A resident privy to the incident who did not want his name in print because of personal reasons told our correspondent that the man thereafter raised the alarm.
“There are two entries into the street. The security guard was at the other end when the car was stolen and was unaware when the act was being perpetrated. It was when the owner of the car woke that he could not find his vehicle.
“That was when he raised the alarm. He also said all his original documents were in it. The security guard had already left while this happened,” the resident disclosed.
Another resident who gave her name as Fade said the car owner who got infuriated in the process went to mobilise his friends and later headed to where the security guard lived.
She said they confronted him and accused him of negligence while also demanding that he should produce the stolen vehicle.
“The situation escalated, resulting in the security guard being beaten to a stupor and left bleeding. Community members’ attempts to intervene were also unsuccessful.
“When the information got to the colleagues who have a small base in the community where they serve as loaders and security guards, they all mobilised themselves into the area carrying cutlasses and wielding other dangerous weapons in an attempt to retaliate the attack on their brother,” she disclosed.
She said the residents were scared due to their numbers, adding that efforts to invite the police proved abortive.
“We had to put a call through to the Joint Task Force and Divisional Police Officer in the area but none of them picked their calls. It took the intervention of the elders in the community before they were calmed,” she added.
The injured security guard was said to have been taken to an undisclosed hospital for treatment.
