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By HENRY OKONKWO and SHINA
OGUNBIYI-JOSEPH
A tanker driver, identified as Salisu Sani, was yesterday crushed to death at the Oshodi as he noticed
the law enforcement agents about to impound and drive away the truck, broke up his prayer and accosted
them to inquire what was amiss.
Request by the driver from one of the officers behind the wheels to come down led to an altercation
and a struggle in which he reportedly fell, while being beaten and crushed to death by their
patrol vehicle. The LASTMA officials reportedly left the scene immediately.
According to Mr. Sodiq Seriki, a welder, who said he watched the incident when he arrived his
workshop early yesterday morning: “I saw one of the LASTMA officers in mufti trying to drive
the trailer forward, and the driver who came back from where he went to pray told the LASTMA to
come down from the trailer but, he refused and as he went through the other door, one of the task
force officers who came with the LASTMA pulled the driver from behind and the driver fell and was
crushed by their patrol car. Immediately they saw what happened, they called themselves one after
the other and took to their heels with their car. We rushed the driver to one hospital in Amuwo Odofin,
where he was rejected, because of internal bleeding, but when we got to the second hospital,
he was confirmed dead.”
Also, the driver’s assistant, Nurudeen Abdullahi, who said they were from Kaduna State, disclosed
that the LASTMA officials came knocking on the door of the trailer and asking for his boss. “My oga
came out to meet them and they said their boss wanted to see him. As he was going with them,
he noticed that one LASTMA officer was already inside the trailer and started the ignition, my oga
came back to stop him from moving the trailer and in the process, one of the officers drew him from
behind and as he fell, their moving car crushed him. Before we could rescue him, he had died and
the LASTMA jumped from the vehicle and they all ran away with their official car.”
When Saturday Sun visited the scene, traffic was in a bedlam, as angry colleagues of the deceased
tanker driver blocked the highway in protest. Hoodlums cashed in and made bonfires on the road, hauling stones and sticks at policemen that
arrived to quell the crisis.
However, police said the tanker driver named Salisu Sani (aka “Dangwari”), was intercepted by
a LASTMA team, at Oshodi – Apapa Expressway, by Ijesha, enroute Mile2. “In the process,
the tanker driver, was allegedly knocked down by the LASTMA vehicle. Victim was rushed to
AMC Hospital Amuwo Odofin where he died.
Policemen have been deployed to the vicinity to restore normalcy, while all stakeholders are being
pacified to prevent further breakdown of law and order. Meanwhile efforts are ongoing to clear
obstructions and restore normal flow of traffic,” a police statement said, adding that investigation
“has commenced to unravel what actually transpired.”
