The incident was said to have occurred on Sokoto Road in the village on Thursday, April 17, 2011 after a truck allegedly knocked down a five-year-old boy and he died instantly while the driver escaped with the vehicle.
Unfortunately for the victim, identified simply as Wasiu, sympathisers were still gathered at the spot when he arrived the scene in the lorry popularly called tipper with registration number XJ 175 KTU. Some hoodlums among the sympathisers then accosted him and accused him of being responsible for the five-year-old boy’s death.
They ordered him to alight from the tipper and asked him why he killed the little boy.
Surprised at the question, he told them he was not the one who hit the boy. Then one man, who was alleged to be the leader of the hoodlums, and his assistant (names withheld) allegedly ordered the mob to kill the tipper driver to serve as a lesson to other reckless drivers in the area.
After hacking the innocent driver to death, the hoodlums were said to have set the tipper ablaze before they retired into their hideout in a nearby bush, where they normally hid themselves after committing such atrocities.
Informed on the phone that the driver of his vehicle had been killed and the vehicle had been set ablaze for allegedly killing a five-year-old boy, the owner of the tipper, Chief Ephraim Oyebuchi, drove to Atan Police Station, from where he went to the scene in company with the investigating police officer and some other policemen from the division.
He said he saw two of the principal suspects at the scene and one of them boasted that he was the one who ordered his boys to force the tipper driver to alight from the vehicle before he was killed with a machete. He was also said to have claimed responsibility for the burning of the tipper.
Onyebuchi said: "On that day, somebody called me on the phone and told me that a vehicle had killed a small boy and escaped, and that when the mob could not locate the errant driver, they transferred their anger to an innocent tipper driver and killed him with a machete.
"They slashed his body till he died and came back from their hideout in a danfo bus some hours later to set the tipper ablaze.
"Even when I got there, their leader boasted that he was the one who ordered his boys to kill the driver and set the tipper ablaze. He even threatened to set my jeep ablaze before I managed to leave the scene.
"We could not even tow the burnt tipper to the police station that day for fear of the hoodlums who had taken advantage of the ugly situation to cause mayhem on Sokoto Road, and even the hoodlums later entered the town, wounding some people and destroying their properties.
"I later heard that the Public Relations Officer of the Tippers Owners Association petitioned the Inspector General of Police who ordered the police zonal headquarters (Zone II) Onikan Lagos to investigate the matter.
"While I was earlier told that 14 people had been arrested over the matter, I was surprised to hear later that 11 of them had been released, including Owoeye and One Hour. I wonder why, as the owner of the tipper set ablaze by the hoodlum, I was side tracked. Up till now, I do not know who and who were charged to court or what the charges against them are. I also wonder why the principal suspects were not charged to court.
"When I got to the Federal SARS office at Adeniji Adele, Lagos, I was allowed to see the Commissioner of Police in charge of Federal Anti Robbery Squad, Mr. Mark A, Idakwo, and he told me that it is not all cases there that are handled by Federal SARS and that he was not aware of any such case being taken to court by his office.
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