By Danlami Nmodu
There was a big fight between officials of Civil Defence Force and some policemen at the Berger Round About in Abuja Tuesday evening.Eye witnesses said they saw a Civil Defence personnel flagging down a car belonging to Julius Berger. Puzzled Eye witness said the incident degenerated into a curious and embarrassing fight between policemen and the civil defence personnel.
“Though I don’t know how it started, but when I got to the round –about, I saw a policeman dragging a civil defence man.The policeman dared another gun wielding civil defence man to shoot if he can.At this time we noticed that more policemen had arrived the scene and some policemen shot into the air” an eyewitness who witnessed the fight said.
“As they shot into the air many people scampered in different direction for their safety.But it appears there was no loss of life” the witness said.
One of those at the scene claimed that the clash between the two armed service personnel group left at least one man dripping with blood apparently from bruises suffered during the confrontation.”
All accounts point to a seeming battle for supremacy as there are always policemen, civil defence and vehicle inspection personnel at the round about .Some times too, road safety personnel also check vehicles as well as control traffic there.
When Newsdiaryonline.com arrived the scene, calm had returned but gun-totting policemen were scene maintaining security.One officer who had his pistol strapped on his waist told Newsdiaryonline.com that “It was civil defence people that are causing problem”,but he refused to give details.One witness claimed that at least two civil defence personnel were whisked away by the police.
The incident worsened the usual traffic gridlock at the roundabout.The situation was made even worse by curious people who parked their vehicles along the road(especially on the bridge) to take a glimpse of the scene.One of such curious passers –by said she thought it was a car crash that led to the gridlock.There was no such accident, she found out.
