Driver crushes passenger who refused to pay fare to death

A 56-year-old Mr. Eze Gabriel,  a luxury bus driver, has been arrested for allegedly crushing one of his passengers to death during a scuffle on Monday, at Ojota area of Lagos.

The Gabriel, his conductor, Okwudili Odoand the luxury bus were arrested after the incident. The bus belongs to Bonny Way Transport Company.

The suspects were alleged to have pushed the deceased, Sunday, out of the moving vehicle, in the process of which the bus rammed over him, killing him on the spot.

 The bus took off from Jibowu Park, around 11pm, heading to Abuja. But trouble was said to have started after two of the passengers started arguing over who would sit on a particular seat.

A passenger in the bus, who gave her name as Uju Mbanefo, said one of the passengers was discovered not to have the bus ticket which was supposed to indicat the sitting position.

The driver of the  bus, who denied pushing the deceased out of the bus as alleged.

He said: “On Monday, night, I loaded from Jibowu to Abuja. On the way after Fadeyi, I heard some of the passengers quarreling. One of them was calling on the conductor to come and show him where he would sit. When the conductor got there, he discovered the person that sat down had no ticket where the seating positions are indicated. While the man standing had already bought his own ticket. The passenger, who was already seated, but had no ticket was asked to stand up, but he refused.

Gabriel said when the argument became unbearable, "I parked at Ojota under bridge to intervene, only for some hoodlums to appear from nowhere with dangerous weapons and surrounded our vehicle. Three of the hoodlums forced the door of the vehicle open, came inside and forcibly collected a bag which contained my driver's license and other documents. They even threatened to set the bus ablaze for daring to park at their territory.

“Out of fear of being injured or killed, I tried to move the vehicle away from the area that made the hoodlums to jump down. The passenger without ticket also jumped down, holding unto the conductor.I didn't know when I mistakenly rammed over the passenger. My intention was to move the bus forward, stop and come back for the conductor.”

The passenger however died on the spot, while the luxury bus conductor sustained injury.

He further said, it was men of the Rapid Response Squad who,stationed at Ojota that removed the remains of the passenger and took the injured conductor to a nearest hospital where he was treated.

Gabriel said, immediately after the incident "I went to report the case at Ogudu Police division, from where it was transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, SCIID, Yaba."

He continued: “I have been driving for 36 years without recording any incident of death. If the man had told me he didn’t have money, I would have carried him for free. Look at the problem he has put me into."