Pandemonium as Bus Driver Kills Soldier in Lagos

Pandemonium occurred Saturday at Liverpool Roundabout, at the Apapa area of Lagos, when a commercial bus driver killed a soldier.

The soldier, attached to Signal Barracks, Apapa, which is a few meters away from the said roundabout, was said to have been walking on the sidewalk when the bus driver hit him.

According to eyewitness account, due to the vehicular blockade on the road by tanker drivers, the driver of the commercial bus known as ‘danfo’ tried to squeeze through.

It was while squeezing through the little space on the road and the sidewalk, where the soldier was walking, that the driver slammed his body against a tanker. By the time people raised an alarm, he had crushed the soldier to the body of the tanker, killing him on the spot.

Immediately the news filtered into the nearby barracks, enraged soldiers mustered to the scene and unleashed mayhem on whomever was in sight. From other commercial bus drivers to tanker drivers, no one was safe from the soldiers; even though the actual culprit, the bus driver had fled, leaving his bus behind.

Still not done, the soldiers blocked the road, with their sole aim being to revenge the death of their colleague by assaulting passersby. When they got tired of bearing the brunt of the attacks, the tanker drivers also mustered to resist the retaliation. The already volatile situation would have gotten out of hand but for the timely intervention of the men of the Area B Police.

Meanwhile, motorists have since desisted from following that axis as the entire stretch of Liverpool to Creek Road junction leading to the ports have been blocked.

The blockade expectedly limited motorists to plying the Kofo Abayomi axis to Airways roundabout as the only way out of Apapa, despite the bad state of the roads.

When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Olarinde Famous-Cole, said it was a tanker driver that killed the soldier.

He said, “The incident happened at about 8.45pm. Information was received that a fatal motor accident occurred along Creek Road, Apapa, where a tanker crushed a soldier. At the moment, the area is calm and investigation is ongoing as to what happened exactly.”

Attempts to also contact the Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, 81 Division Headquarters, Lt.-Colonel Dauda, proved abortive as a text message sent to him was not replied to as at press time.