There was pandemonium on Tuesday at the Second Lekki Toll Gate, Chevron Ajah, on the Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos State, after a truck crushed a motorcycle rider and his passenger to death.
It was gathered that the truck driver was conveying sand to a destination in the state when he suddenly lost control and rammed into the victims around 9am.
It was learnt that the truck driver, on realising what had happened, abandoned the vehicle and fled.
While the passenger died on the spot, the rider reportedly gave up the ghost later.
An eyewitness, who spoke in a clip reposted on an Instagram platform, Instablog9ja, said security agents, including policemen and soldiers who visited the scene while one of the victims was still alive, did nothing.
The lady said, “Police, soldiers came with their vehicles and left. If it is their family that were on the ground, will they pass? What nonsense. They are dead. These people have been on the ground for the past one hour.
“When this thing happened, if they rushed them to CMS, they would have survived; because the boy was a strong boy and still breathing.”
Another eyewitness, while lamenting the incident, said the bones of one of the victims stuck out after the accident.
She added, “The driver of the bike was right here; it was not up to 40 minutes that they carried him, but he has injuries in his leg. It is the passenger that is long gone. The boy is between 13 to 14 years; he is a very small boy.
“Look at his bone on the road and they have been calling emergency lines for the past one hour; this thing happened at exactly 9.20am.”
Our correspondent gathered that the deaths sparked outrage in the area, as an angry mob, comprising residents and motorcyclists, protested the incident.
People gathered around the victims’ corpses, which were abandoned on the road.
The irate mob later vandalised and burnt the truck.
Not done, the protesters gathered disused tyres, which they set ablaze on the road, thereby preventing vehicular movement on the expressway.
The situation was said to have led to a backlog of traffic, as commuters and motorists became stranded.
Policemen deployed in the scene from nearby police stations, while attempting to disperse the crowd, shot into the air.
An eyewitness, who gave his name as Dr Smile, said some of the protesters attacked the policemen for shooting.
“People are angry; they are chasing the police into the Eleganza building, police just came and started shooting; now the youth are repelling the police as you can see.
“The police have run into the Eleganza building to hide. The police have no right to come into an area of chaos to start shooting,” he added.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu, said the police deployed minimum force to restore normalcy in the area.
He said, “The Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alabi, directed that an adequate patrol team should be deployed in that place and that has already been complied with and the patrol team went there and restored normalcy.
“The case is currently under investigation. The police used minimum force to disperse them when they were becoming violent.”
The Lagos State Taskforce Director, Press and Public Affairs, Gbadeyan Abdulraheem, while quoting the Chairman of the agency, CSP Shola Jejeloye, said the unrest was avoidable.
He said, “Eyewitnesses claimed that the rider rode against traffic before being rammed into by the moving truck, leading to passersby and miscreants setting the truck ablaze, causing commotion and transfer of aggression by miscreants and hoodlums on innocent citizens along that axis.
“The swift intervention of the state task force and other enforcement security agents brought the situation under control and restored normalcy in the area.” – Punch.
