Motor-boy crushed to death as police, LASTMA fight truck driver over N500

By Steve Agbota

A motor-boy, who was assisting a truck driver, was crushed to death in the early hours of yesterday, on top of Total Bridge, along the Apapa port access road.

The incident happened when the police and officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) stopped the truck driver along with the motor-boy on top Total bridge and asked the driver to pay N500, but the driver refused.

The refusal to give the police and LASTMA officials N500 led to a serious fight. The motor-boy was beaten by the police and LASTMA officials until he fell under the trailer and was crushed to death immediately. The incident drew the anger of truck drivers who have concluded plans to shut down all access points to the ports and paralyse port operations until the government removes all the extortion points along the port corridors.

The Administration Secretary, Association of Maritime Truck Owners of Nigeria (AMATO), Mohammed Sani, who confirmed the development to Daily Sun, said traffic officers asked the truck drivers for money and he refused, and they started fighting, adding that they beat the motor-boy assisting the driver until he fell under the trailer and was crushed to death immediately.

“Right now, the truck drivers and others are on top of the bridge; they blocked all access points to Apapa port and demanded the release of the driver of the truck who was being detained by the police. Right now, the soldiers are on top of the bridge to open up the traffic. We don’t have security and traffic control men along the ports corridors. What we have are just a bunch of extortion bandits hiding under the guise of providing security and traffic control,” he said.

A truck driver, Isiaq Rafiuayub, called on the government to remove all maritime bandits from the roads.

He urged truckers  to come out for protest and shut down the whole access roads leading to ports for one week until the government removes all the extortion points from Alaka to Iganmu under-bridge.

“Then from the total bridge coming into the inward port, we don’t need extortion points anymore.

We need LASTMA to control the traffic situation. We need to shut down Coconut to Tin Can Port until further notice. We want the government to stop illegal extortion by police and area-boys immediately,” he lamented.

However, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Idowu Owohunwa, and his men carried out an on-the-spot assessment of the situation in Apapa, where the ‘motor boy’ was crushed to death.