• Abuja-Lokoja highway locked down
From Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
The ever-busy Abuja-Lokoja highway was locked down yesterday, following a protest over the killing of a tanker driver allegedly by the officials of the state revenue board.
According to a witness, the revenue officials flagged down the truck driver, who was coming from Maiduguri and heading to the South-West at about 1am, Monday morning.
It was gathered that his vehicle was impounded, with a demand for payment of N5, 000 levy.
Daily Sun gathered that this generated to a heated argument between the truck driver and the revenue officials, which later snowballed into a brawl.
One of the revenue officials was said to have hit the driver on the head with an iron, causing his death. In anger, other truck drivers staged a protest and consequently packed their vehicles on the highway, causing a gridlock.
For more than five hours, hundreds of motorists plying the highway were stranded, as vehicles’ movement was halted.
It was gathered that the aggrieved drivers refused the entreaties of the state’s deputy governor, who visited the scene, requesting that Governor Yahaya Bello should personally come to commiserate with them.
It took the tact of soldiers, police and top government officials to get the drivers to removed their vehicles from the road, to allow free-flow of traffic at about 1.30pm.
One of the revenue officials, Suleiman, blamed the deceased driver for the fracas. According to him, there would not have been any problem if the driver did not confront the revenue officials.
Commissioner of Police, Ali Janga, while reacting, told our correspondent that his men restore normalcy at the scene.
The state chairman of National Union of Road Transport Worker (NURTW), Tanko Ali, confirmed the death of the truck driver, while frowning at the collection of revenue by state government officials at odd hours.