‘He wanted to take his baby to hospital’ — colleague of shot driver speaks on Wuse encounter

The last has not been heard of the outbreak of violence at Wuse market in Abuja, on Wednesday.

Taxi drivers blocked major roads in the nation’s capital to protest the shooting of one of their colleagues. It is not clear whether the victim survived the incident.

Ade Bello, a taxi driver who reportedly witnessed it, said he was the one who called the victim to the spot where he was shot.

Bello said he informed his colleague, who plies Wuse-Karimu route that his wife and sick baby were at the bus stop waiting for him to take them to the hospital.

He said the man decided to relax for a while with the plan of joining his family “only for him to be shot”.

“This slippers that I am holding was what he wore… After shooting him, they took him to an unknown destination,” Bello said.

Uche Madu, another taxi driver, who said he witnessed the incident, also spoke with TheCable.

“He just parked his car and was confronted by one of the members of the JTF and before he could say anything, one of them opened fire and started shooting sporadically,” Madu told TheCable.

“I saw him fall down and he was picked from the ground hurriedly and dumped into their vehicle like a ram.

“I just believe the government should look into the activities of the task force because they are more criminally inclined than the armed robbers.”

“This inhuman treatment should stop, every time they now see us as their source of daily money making machine with their attitude.

“Sometimes, they will just pick your vehicle and take you to Wuye their head office, where they will ask you to pay between 15 and 25 thousand naira, and after negotiation, they will direct you to the VIO office where they will give you a piece of paper with ‘release the vehicle’ which you will take back to the JTF office which they will collect from you after payment and no receipt.”

Trouble started after members of the task force team attempted to arrest a driver for “parking wrongly”.

The arrest was, however, resisted by other drivers who were said to have confronted the security operatives.

In the process, more people sustained injuries. TheCable witnessed drivers throwing stones at security operatives including officers of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Nigeria police force and Nigerian army.

The protesters dispersed in the evening, with a promise to return the next day.

Meanwhile, the federal capital territory (FCT) police command says that it has arrested some suspects in connection with the incident

Anjuguri Manzah, spokesman of the command, disclosed this in a statement

“Some hoodlums who were trying to take advantage of the false rumor to cause problem in the FCT have been arrested and investigation is in progress,’’ he said.

Manzah denied that anyone was killed and advised members of the public to always follow the right channel in expressing their grievances instead of resorting to self-help.