According to an eye witness, the LAGBUS with serial number 241 and license number XS584 AAA was driving out of the Ikorodu Bus Station when its path was barred by a three-vehicle convoy of mobile police officers moving on the wrong side of traffic.
Drama ensued when the captain of the LAGBUS, Mr. Peace, was ordered to drive backwards so that the police convoy could proceed.
Witnesses said the driver was unable to comply because other buses where lined up behind him. This enraged the officers and one of them opened a canister of tear gas and threw it directly into the driver's face and subsequently into the vehicle. At this point, commuters panicked and fled for their lives with some inhaling tear gas in the process.
"The bus had already loaded and wanted to come out. Those mobile police followed one way and blocked the bus. So about four or five police officers came down to meet the driver and told him to move back," said an eyewitness, Usman Abiodun a LAGBUS driver. "Another bus (my bus) was behind my captain's (peace's) bus, so there was no chance for him to go back. Before everybody knew a thing, they had sprayed tear gas inside the bus. It poured on the captain's face and another woman sitting behind the driver. All passengers ran away from the bus. The captain has not opened his opened his eyes. Peace's eyes are swollen. We had to carry him to Alausa but he still has not opened his eyes."
Abuse of law
Though two traffic cops and some road safety officers were in front of the bus station when the incident happened, the mobile police officers went unchallenged.
Attempts to speak to the traffic officers on duty proved abortive as they fled the scene immediately after the incident.
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