Policemen assault driver, conductor for failure to ‘settle’

   

 

Scene of the incident
| credits: Photo: Emeka Obi

Some policemen on Sunday afternoon along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway beat up a commercial bus driver and his conductor for failure to part with some amount of money as “settlement” for alleged traffic offences.

The incident occurred at Agric bus stop, where the driver of a 14-seater commercial bus, marked, (LAGOS) GGE 554 XK, stopped to pick up passengers.

No sooner had the bus stopped than a policeman rushed into the bus and ordered the driver to park properly.

The bus conductor pleaded with the policeman, saying that they had not stopped wrongly as where they stopped was a bus stop. The policeman told the conductor to stop the long story as “you know what to do.”

The conductor then explained that they were just embarking on their first trip for the day and had not made any money.

On seeing that the bus driver and his conductor were not ready to “cooperate”, the policeman ordered the driver to get down and hand him the keys to the bus.

“Una no wan cooperate abi? Driver! Get down and give me the keys,” he ordered.

The driver quickly turned off the ignition and handed the keys to a female passenger sitting next to him. The female passenger put the keys in her handbag.

He thereafter told the policeman that the bus did not have keys, adding that the bus was a “push and start” vehicle.

“Officer my motor no get key, na push and start e be,” the driver said.

Suspecting a foul play, the policeman became furious and spat on the driver’s face.

“Do you think I am stupid? This bus must get to the station. We shall see,” he said.

The passengers in the bus pleaded with the policeman to “forgive” the driver, but the pleas fell on deaf ears.

The policeman and his colleague subsequently pushed the vehicle towards their station. The driver, in a desperate move laid on the ground in front of the vehicle, insisting that the policemen should kill him rather than take away his means of livelihood.

One of the policemen cocked his gun, pointing to the driver and threatened to shoot him if he did not leave the road. He kicked the driver several times and promised to break his ribs.

While this was on, another policeman had engaged the bus conductor, slapping and hitting the young man who was too scared to fight back.

When it became obvious that the vehicle could not be towed further to the police station, another angry policeman forcefully removed the back number plate of the vehicle. He also threatened to shoot the tyres.

Attempts to speak with the policemen were unsuccessful as one of them angrily asked our correspondent to get out of his sight.

“Who are you? It seems you don’t have anywhere else to go. My friend; get out,” he said.

Meanwhile our correspondent was able to discover that the policemen were from Ira Estate Police Station, Ojo, under the Area E Police Command.

The bus driver lamented that the incident had become the lot of many commercial transport operators.

The driver, who identified himself simply as Ayo, said, “This is what we have been going through in the hands of these policemen. They continue to extort money from us. This time, I am ready to die because I did not commit any offence.”