» Policeman Dies While Trying To Arrest Danfo Driver In Lagos «

LAGOS—A police officer attached to Orile
Division
died in a motor accident opposite Fatgbems
Filling Station, along Oshodi-Apapa
Expressway
at about 9a.m., yesterday.
It was learned that the deceased, while
attempting to apprehend a commercial bus
(Danfo) driver, who was picking up
passengers
along the road, jumped into the moving
bus with
number plates KJA305XL.
The bus sped off, while trying to escape,
and hit
another car with number plates LND340DF.
The
sudden stop made the policeman, who was
hanging on the bus, to fall.
An eyewitness told Vanguard that as the
cop fell,
a trailer ran over him, killing him instantly,
as the
commercial bus driver and his conductor
took to
their heels, abandoning the vehicle.
Vanguard gathered that the driver of the
car,
which the bus driver hit, was travelling for
his
father’s burial when he incident occurred.
Operatives of Federal Road Safety Corps,
FRSC,
Lagos State Traffic Management Agency,
LASTMA, and policemen from Trinity and
Orile
Divisions were there to ensure free flow of
traffic
as onlookers besieged the area.
A passenger’s tale
A passenger in the bus, Rotimi Baki, said:
“The
policeman jumped into the commercial bus
while
the bus was moving and picking
passengers at
the bus stop.
“All of a sudden, the commercial bus driver
braked
and the policeman fell off and a truck
coming
from behind hit him. The vehicle in front of
the
commercial bus had stopped. So the bus
driver
did same.”
One of the police officers, Sergeant Samuel,
from
Trinity Divisional Police Station harassed,
dragged
and seized Vanguard reporter’s mobile
phone,
accusing her of celebrating the death of his
colleague.
All pleas to get back the phone fell on deaf
ears
as the officers kept shouting ‘I will deal with
you.
Who gave you authority to take pictures?
You
must come to our office’.
When she eventually got to their office, the
Divisional Police Officer called the officer,
who
seized the phone, and returned it to the
reporter.
Later, officers from the Trinity Police
Division took
the corpse of the Policemen to Orile Police
Station
and later to Mainland Hospital Mortuary,
Yaba.