By Chimezie Godfrey
Hell was let loose at Wuse Bus stop and its environs in Abuja on Wednesday as the clash between the Abuja Joint Task Force and the Taxi Drivers led to the shooting of one person and scores of others injured.The clash triggered a massive protest that disrupted the flow of traffic Wednesday.
The Abuja Joint Task Force Officials had in the course of their duty gone to arrest a taxi driver at the Wuse Bus Stop Wednesday morning but the driver’s resistance led to his being manhandled.This led to other taxi drivers coming to the rescue of their colleague.The situation eventually degenerated to a full blown clash resulting in the firing of gun allegedly by Task force members .
Abubakar Audu, himself a driver and one of the eyewitnesses who spoke with Newsdiaryonline said,”because the driver refused to be arrested,they started beating him until he was unconcious,and was shot by one of the task force members on Army uniform.”
According to Audu,the Task Force after shooting the driver took him into their vehicle and drove to an unknown destination.He also said that the driver resisted arrest because he had been arrested for about three times this week by the same task force and each of these times he paid them to secure his release.This time around, he could not afford to comply with them .
Another taxi driver, Ugochukwu Francis,while lamenting the ill-treatment meted to them by the Abuja Joint task force said that they are being enslaved because almost everything they make each day goes to settling the task force,and they drivers are left with nothing for themselves.
Francis said that sometimes members of the Task Force disguise as passengers only to show their true intention when in their vehicles.”They are criminals,we don’t need any Task Force,we don’t need any V.I.O,”he said.”
Isaac Andrew,also one of the taxi drivers, confirmed to Newsdiaryonline that the driver was beaten black and blue,and shot by a suspected member of the task force because he refused to cooperate with them.”We will continue to protest and mount road blocks until the FCT Minister comes to address us,because the task force claims that they are carrying out the mandate given to them by the minister,” he said.
The rampaging drivers out of anger and retaliation to the shooting of one of them and injuries inflicted on their members mounted road blocks on the roads in Wuse to Berger, preventing vehicle movements.Some of the aggrieved drivers were carrying placards with inscriptions such as,”We don’t want any task force,they are criminals.”
It took the combined efforts of some men of the Nigerian Army and a team of policemen from FCT police command to restore order in the troubled area.
A member of the police team,ACP,Ayodele E. Sonubi advised the angry mob to maintain a peaceful protest and assured them that thier grievances would be addressed by the appropriate authorities.
