From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
There was pandemonium at Umuikaa, a busy transiting road junction leading to Owerri, along the Aba end of the Enugu/Port Harcourt Expressway, in Abia State, on Wednesday, as a Federal Road Safety (FRSC) official, stabbed a driver to death for refusing to give him a bribe.
The driver, identified simply as Obinna, from Umuakaa in Njaba, Imo State, had allegedly arrived at the checkpoint, and was asked by road safety officials for money, which he refused, and was about to move on when a member of the corps, held his car steering wheel and in an ensuing scuffle, stabbed him with a dagger.
Daily Sun gathered that, on seeing what happened, traders and other road users in the area, demanded that the driver be taken to the hospital by the FRSC team, and on reaching a private hospital in the area, he was proclaimed dead.
The development was said to have angered the people who began a protest against the road safety and other security operatives manning checkpoints in the area and attracted the attention of Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Council authority.
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Confirming the incident in a statement, a media aide to the Council Chairman, Mr Enyinnaya Nwaigwe, said the driver refused to give the road safety officials money and was about to move when one of them dragged him out of the vehicle and stabbed him to death.
“Obinna, refused to give the road safety officials money and was about to move but was dragged out of his vehicle and stabbed to death.”
The council authorities urged the people to remain calm, promising that justice will be delivered on the matter and other incidents like it in the area.
The police are yet to come out with a statement on the killing as of the time of this report.
It will be recalled that a similar killing of a motorist occurred in the area, that was used as a former toll gate, but at its closure Nationwide, was converted as Abia State Sector Command headquarters of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), and is a few kilometres away from the Owerrinta base of the Nigerian Navy School of Logistics, whose officials also mount checkpoints on the road junction.