drivers shut
down Benin-Lagos Expressway, yesterday, to protest killing of a conductor with
Young Shall Grow Motors by robbers and incessant robbery attacks on
the ever-busy highway.
the ever-busy highway.
The drivers’
protest left commuters stranded on the highway for several hours.
A witness,
who gave his name as Ayinla, a driver with Complete Sports, said the robbers
took over the road as early as 1:00 am and killed one person on the spot.
He said
while the robbers were operating, calls were put across to the Nigeria Police
for intervention but they did not show up.
The robbers,
he added, after having a field day, left uninterrupted.
Ayinla
further added that luxury bus drivers,
aggrieved at the incessant robbery attacks on the road, especially at Okada
Junction axis and the degree of responsiveness of the police to an emergency
situation, decided to barricade the road, which led to protracted gridlock
which lasted for several hours.
“The drivers
said they will not leave the highway until federal and state governments
address the issue of incessant robbery on the Benin-Lagos expressway.
“This whole
thing started at about 1:00am. I have been on the road since then…” he said.
Another witness, Mr. Johnson Saliu, a driver with Tribune Newspaper, who
arrived Benin at about 1:50pm described the situation as horrific.
“It was
tough. You can imagine somebody who has been on the road since 11:00am till
now, it is not easy and the experience was terrible.
“More than
three weeks since I have been plying that road, there is no day there has not
been a robbery attack,” he said. Another witness, who declined to be named
added: “We left Onitsha at about 10:30pm, while we were on the way, armed
robbers attacked us immediately after Benin, heading to Okada. We managed to
escape but, we now decided to park somewhere because the shooting was too much.
That was when we discovered that the conductor of the bus hadbeen killed. The
robbers also attacked several vehicles close to where we parked, including
Ezenwata bus and some small buses and were shooting everywhere.”
In his
response to the development, Secretary to Edo State Government, Osaro Ogie,
admitted receiving a report on the incident.
“We received
this report about a traffic jam which occurred around Okada Junction, as a
result of armed robbery incident. We got in touch with the director of the
Department of State Service (DSS), Ibrahim Hiliu and the Commissioner of
Police. We saw the thousands of stranded passengers and drivers.
“We received
the report of robbery operations and I can
assure you now that security agencies are going to increase their presence
around here and across the state.
“We have the
responsibility to make sure that our state is safe and everybody who passes
here does that safely. We are going to increase security on all the major roads
involving members of the communities, the army, police and others.”
On his part,
Edo commissioner of police, Haliru Gwandu said: “We got this information in the
morning that there was total gridlock from Benin to Lagos and when I contacted
our DPO and commanders, the report was that there was robbery attack at about
1:00am. Thank God, the distress call was able to rescue all the passengers.
However, hoodlums who came from the bush shot the windscreen of the bus,
wounded the conductor who later died in the hospital.
“Apart from
the conductor, others are hale and hearty. I will say kudos to my men who
attended to the distress call.
“The command
is battle-ready to ensure such hoodlums are brought to justice. We will
apprehend them. Not only that, proactive strategy will be deployed. The aspect
of visibility policing where the government promised to provide containers for
the police, so that hoodlums will not take advantage of heavy rainfall.”
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