The General Manager, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Olajide Oduyoye, has explained how some Lagos commercial bus drivers attacked and hacked an officer of the agency to death at Anthony area of Lagos State.
He added that the deceased, Osazu Segun Godwin, alongside his colleague, Adeniyi Hakeem, were attacked by drivers of Suzuki commercial buses popularly known as ‘korope,’ and others at Anthony on Tuesday.
Oduyoye explained that Godwin and Hakeem were attacked with machetes and other dangerous weapons by the drivers, and the development, he said, led to the death of Godwin.
He noted that trouble started when a commercial bus driver with registration number FKJ 452 YC, plying Bariga to Oshodi, via the Ikorodu Road axis, was apprehended for contravening the Traffic Law of the state.
Infuriated by the officer’s action, the driver, an alleged ex-convict, with some other drivers, pounced on the officers, overpowered, and eventually killed the deceased.
According to him, the sad fact about the whole saga was that the two officers were in mufti and on their way home, having completed their morning shift and closed for the day before the recalcitrant commercial bus driver went berserk, seeking any LASTMA officers to attack for carrying out their statutory duties.
“Obazu was struck severally with machetes, resulting in deep lacerations on the head and his eventual death, while Adeniyi Hakeem, who was also attacked in a similar fashion, has been hospitalised and in a coma,” Oduyoye said in a statement made available to newsmen.
Oduyoye noted that seven of the suspected killers had been apprehended and handed over to the police while the driver of the bus and others are still at large, assuring that the police would conduct a proper investigation.
According to him, the full wrath of the law would be brought to bear on all those found guilty of taking laws into their hands..