I want justice, cries bus conductor’s pregnant widow

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• Father promised to fund my education, says son

Wife of a bus conductor, Ikechukwu Abasirim, allegedly killed by officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) at Second Rainbow Bus Stop, Oshodi- Apapa Expressway, Lagos, on Monday, has called on the government to bring her husband’s killers to book. The seven-month pregnant widow, Mrs Ini Abasirim, said it would be difficult to take care of her four children and the fifth one on the way. The widow made the appeal yesterday at her father-in-law’s home at No 4, Jimoh Meji Street, Itire, where friends and relatives had converged to mourn the conductor.
The 44-year-old Abasirim was crushed to death by vehicle belonging to LASTMA officials on Monday. Witnesses claimed that LASTMA vehicle blocked the commercial bus, while an official held the deceased, trying to force into their van. The conductor was refused to go inside the bus, when the official behind the wheel, suddenly drove off. The victim fell down while the vehicle crushed his head. But LASTMA said yesterday that its personnel were not responsible for Abasirim’s death. “Some policemen attached to the agency were trying to arrest a commercial bus who contravened traffic law.

At the time of the incident, no LASTMA official was involved in the attempted arrest, neither was an official of the agency at the scene or vicinity of the incident that claimed the victim’s life. “However, immediately after the death of the victim, sympathisers and hoodlums invaded the LASTMA’s zone 30 Cele-Ijesha office, where they unleashed mayhem, destroyed apprehended vehicles and other valuables within the agency’s removal yard,” the LASTMA General Manager, Babatunde Edu, said in a statement. Meanwhile, Ini said that she was resting at home that fateful day when she heard the news of her husband’s killing.
She said: “My son ran into the house, he said mummy come and see Daddy. I went with him. When I got there, what I saw was a crowd of people outside our home. I saw my husband’s lifeless body lying inside a commercial bus. I moved closed to him and gripped his hands. I shouted his name, begging him to stand up. “It was then I knew a big tragedy had befallen me. I am seven-month pregnant. Who will take care of me and the four children he left behind? “Where do you expect me to start from now? I have nobody go to for help. My children and I are going to suffer.”
The 74-year–old father of the deceased, Chief Gilbert Abasirim, said that at his age, he could not begin to look for job in order to take over his son’s responsibilities. He said: “The late Abrasirim was my first child. He was the one taking care of me and my wife. We are old. I was in my house when someone phoned me that my son had an accident. I rushed down to their house at Osogbo Street only to see a crowd. I was told LASTMA officials used their van to crush my son to death. The LASTMA officials ran away after the act.” The man begged police not to sweep the matter under the carpet.
The 14-year-old son of the deceased, Innocent Abasirim, said that when his father was going out that fateful day, he warned him to be careful. He said: “My father promised to send me to the university if I could study very and pass my Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) while I also promised to buy him buses whenever I graduated from the university.”
http://newtelegraphonline.com/i-want-justice-cries-bus-conductors-pregnant-widow/