Lagos police and protesters clash as truck runs over Okada driver and passenger
There was pandemonium on Tuesday at Lekki’s second tollbooth Chevron Ajah on the Lekki-Epe highway in Lagos state after a truck crushed a biker and his passenger to death.
PUNCH Metro understood that the truck driver was transporting sand to a destination in the state when he suddenly lost control and rammed into the victims around 9 a.m.
We learned that the truck driver, realizing what had happened, abandoned the vehicle and fled.
While the passenger died on the spot, the biker would have passed away later.
An eyewitness, who spoke in a clip reposted to a instagram Platform, instalog9jasaid security agents, including police and military who attended while one of the victims was still alive, did nothing.
The lady said, “Police, soldiers came with their vehicles and left. If their family was on the ground, will they pass? What nonsense. They are dead. These people have been on the ground for an hour.
“When this thing happened, if they had rushed them to CMS, they would have survived; because the boy was a strong boy and he was still breathing.
Another eyewitness, while lamenting the incident, said the bones of one of the victims came out after the crash.
She added, “The motorbike driver was right here; it wasn’t until 40 minutes that they carried him, but he has leg injuries. It’s the passenger who’s long gone. The boy is between 13 and 14 years old; he is a very small boy.
“Look at his bone on the road and they’ve been calling the emergency lines for an hour; this thing happened at 9:20 exactly.
Our correspondent understood the deaths sparked outrage in the area, as an angry crowd of locals and bikers protested the incident.
PUNCH Metro observed as people gathered around the bodies of the victims, which were left on the road.
The angry mob then vandalized and burned the truck.
Not done, the demonstrators collected used tires, which they set on fire on the roadway, thus preventing the circulation of vehicles on the highway.
The situation reportedly resulted in a backlog of traffic as commuters and motorists became stranded.
Police officers deployed to the scene from nearby police stations, as they tried to disperse the crowd, fired into the air.
An eyewitness, who went by the name of Dr Smile, said some of the protesters attacked the officers for shooting.
“People are angry; they chase the police in the Eleganza building, the police just arrived and started shooting; now the young people are pushing back the police as you can see.
“The police ran into the Eleganza building to hide. The police have no right to enter a zone of chaos to start shooting,” he added.
The state police public relations officer, CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu, said the police deployed minimal force to restore normalcy to the area.
He said: “The Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alabi, ordered an adequate patrol team to be deployed to this location and this has already been complied with and the patrol team has gone there and restored normality.
“The matter is currently under investigation. The police used minimal force to disperse them when they became violent.
Lagos State Task Force Director, Press and Public Affairs, Gbadeyan Abdulraheem, while quoting the agency’s Chairman, CSP Shola Jejeloye, said the unrest was preventable.
He said: ‘Eyewitnesses said the driver drove into traffic before being hit by the moving lorry, which led to passers-by and miscreants setting fire to the lorry, causing a commotion and transfer of aggression by disbelievers and thugs on innocent citizens along this axis.
“The prompt intervention of the state task force and other law enforcement security officers brought the situation under control and restored normalcy to the area.”
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