An armed former construction manager barricaded himself in at the Children and Youth Protection Service offices in Lagos, holding three people hostage.
António Duarte, pictured below, entered the premises at about 09:15 having taken the hostages and shooting at a PSP officer with his shotgun when approached. The officer was grazed in the head with shot but not seriously injured.
Armed police from the PSP’s Special Operations Group soon arrived in force and for the entire day a section of the city has been cordoned off as officers tried to find out the reasons for the man’s behaviour and to find a way of ending the siege.
At 18:00 this evening the man gave up and ended the tense stand-off, releasing two men and a woman whom he had held hostage.
One of the hostages was a GNR officer, a fact that the man was unaware of throughout the ordeal as the officer was not in uniform. The police were aware that a colleague was being held which served to heighten the tension.
The other two hostages were a psychologist and a teacher, both employees at the youth centre who are now receiving psychological support.
The police knew that the kidnapper, 40-year-old António Duarte, was a former construction manager and that he was armed with a sawn-off shotgun, a hunting knife and a 7.65mm pistol. Duarte's children, a boy and a girl of 14 and 15, recently had been removed due to domestic violence claims by his wife.
Duarte’s wife and their two children currently are under a victim protection programme with Duarte unaware of their location.
It seems Duarte’s actions were linked to this situation as he wanted to talk to his children which currently he is prevented from doing.
Duarte was allowed to talk to his kids on the phone and then released the hostages, after handing himself to the waiting officers. He will remain in prison until trial.
