Again, okada riders damage BRT buses in Lagos

THERE was confusion on Wednesday morning in Berger area of Lagos State as commercial motorcyclists, again, protested against the implementation of the newly introduced traffic law in the state.
Two vehicles in the fleet of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) were damaged by the rampaging okada riders, who smashed the buses.
Some passengers were injured in the stampede that followed the attack on the buses, while hundreds of pedestrians also scampered for safety.
The situation almost led to a serious commotion as social miscreants attempted to hijack the protest from the angry okada riders.
  The Nigerian Tribune gathered that the Wednesday protest was as a result of the seizure of some motorcycles by a team of policemen and task force officers from the state secretariat in Alausa.
A witness, who pleaded anonymity, while speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, stated that the riot started around 9.00 a.m. shortly after the police team had taken away some motorcycles to Alausa.
According to the eyewitness, the motorcyclists reinforced and chased away LASTMA officials, before they descended on BRT buses.
Two red Daewoo brand buses were damaged by the protesting riders, who also threatened to kill any LASTMA officials that came their way.
When contacted, the imagemaker in charge of the state police command, Ngozi Braide, denied being aware of the incident but promised to find out and react later.
 Meanwhile, social and commercial activities were temporarily brought to a halt in  Ketu area of Lagos, when an unidentified policeman again shot dead a bus conductor for demanding transport fee from him.
An eyewitness account told  Nigerian Tribune that trouble ensued when the conductor of the Ketu-bound bus asked the policeman who was in mufti, to pay his transport fare as he was about alighting at Ketu.
The conductor was said to have insisted that the policeman must  pay since he had already informed him that another law enforcement agent was also in the vehicle and as a result, would be very difficult for him to carry two law enforcement agents free of charge.
Angered by the conductor’s effrontery, the yet-to-be identified policeman was said to have shot the conductor in the head and disappeared  with the help of the policemen around the scene, a development which was said to have angered the colleagues of the deceased.
Sensing trouble, the policemen at the Police Headquarters, quickly locked the gate leading to the station and began to shoot in the air to disperse the colleagues of the deceased, who had begun to gather around the corpse in preparation for a possible reprisal.
As of the time of filing this report, shops  and other markets close to the scene and in other adjoining streets were still under lock, while people were seen running helter skelter to avoid falling victims of stray bullets.
The Tribune