Posted by SULE BELLO on November 29, 2009 at 10:15pm
Six die at police check-point in DeltaBy Sola Adebayo, Warri, Published: Friday, 27 Nov 2009Tragedy struck in Delta State on Thursday as six persons were crushed to death at a police check point in Ebrumede community, Uvwie Local Government Area of the state.The deceased, all women, were conveying palm oil to a market in Effurun, the headquarters of Uvwie LGA, before they were crushed to death by an oil trailer at the road block mounted by policemen attached to Ebrumede Police Station.It was learnt that the driver conveying the deceased on the ill-fated trip was engaging the policemen in a hot argument over a bribe demand before the trailer rammed into the bus.Consequently, the oil tanker with registration number XA 399 GNA smashed the bus with registration number AA 49 FST and killed all its occupants. The policemen fled the scene as the women groaned under the heavy impact of the accident.It took officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission and sympathisers over two hours to secure a pay loader to remove the oil tanker, which rested on the bus. Sympathisers cried uncontrollably as the mutilated remains of the deceased were eventually recovered and taken to the morgue of a government-owned hospital in Effurun.However, the driver of the bus, his lieutenant and another woman, who had seized the opportunity to ease herself in company with her baby, survived the tragic event.Blood, palm oil and the wreckage of the bus littered the scene as the rescue operation led to the closure of a portion of the East/West Road (Warri/Port Harcourt highway) by the FRSC.But the whereabouts of the driver of the oil tanker could not be ascertained on Thursday afternoon.In reaction, angry members of the public sacked the police station, a few minutes after the remains of the deceased were evacuated from the scene.It was, however, learnt that the police station was deserted before the protesters attacked it. The police station was eventually torched by the protesters.The authorities of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, Operation Restore Hope, later deployed soldiers and policemen in the area. Two Armoured Personnel Carriers attached to the JTF were also moved to the sacked police station.It was learnt that the Sector 1 Commander of JTF, Colonel Jamil Sarham, authorised the deployment of the troops and the APCs.The Sector Commander of FRSC in Delta State, Mr. Luka Ikpi, confirmed the incident in a telephone interview with our correspondent.“A tanker fell on a bus; and from information available to us (FRSC), the six people in the bus died. All the six people are women. Three persons, made up of two men and one woman, were injured,” Ikpi said.The Commissioner of Police, Delta State Police Command, Mr. Yakubu Alhikali, declined to comment on the incident. He claimed to be in a meeting on the four occasions our correspondent contacted him on the phone.
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