A woman, Ufoma Ezekudero, confronted a team of LASTMA officials who allegedly crushed her consignment of ‘turkey’ in an attempt to arrest a motorist and got a whopping N40,000 ransom for the damages. It was a do-or-die affair as Ufoma stood right in front of the LASTMA’s vehicle, defying the torrential rain in the heat of the confrontation. She defiantly refused to move demanding for the payment of her wares destroyed by the LASTMA officials. Her dogged determination paid off. How did it happen?
According to her, it all started when the bus taking her and other commuters from Ikotun towards Cele Express bus stop was stopped by a team of LASTMA officials at the tail end of Cele/Egbe bridge, opposite Egbe Hotel. “When the LASTMA officials stopped our bus before getting on the Cele/Egbe bridge, we didn’t know what happened because the driver had not committed any offence. We told the driver not to answer them but he didn’t listen and stopped.
“Immediately he stopped, one of them entered our bus and wanted to drive the bus away. We shouted and asked them to leave the bus because the driver had not done anything wrong but they refused and before we realised what was happening, it has degenerated into a fight and everybody in the bus quickly rushed down.
“While this was going on, the driver of the LASTMA van came and offloaded all my goods on the ground and one of them quickly entered the bus to drive off but because of the commotion could not do so. Meanwhile, the driver of the LASTMA van that offloaded my goods to the ground wanted to drive out and by doing so, drove on my four cartons of frozen turkey and other things.
“And for me, the goods are my livelihood. My husband’s three shops at Oshodi had already fallen to the bulldozers of Governor Raji Fashola and I am now the bread winner of my family. My husband now goes about collecting irons to sell and it is this business that we are surviving on.
“If it will lead to death, I am ready to die here today. Where will I see money to recoup my loss if they don’t pay me? And look at that black one over there; just last week here, he arrested the Keke Napep that I chartered at 6am in Ikotun. He said the Keke Napep is already over the line before it stopped. I begged him and at the end of the day had to part with N4,700 to bail the Keke Napep from them. But today, they must pay me for this damaged turkey. Who will buy the turkey from me if I don’t collect my N40,000 naira?
By the time got there, the incident, had caused a massive gridlock and had also attracted a large number of onlookers who were on the verge of attacking the LASTMA officials on general principles. However, it was the timely arrival and intervention of a mobile policeman who shot into the air to calm the tension and helped the LASTMA take possession of the Danfo bus which battery had hitherto been removed by the driver, at the insistence of the horde of onlookers and sympathisers that saved the situation.
According to one Saliu, an eye witness, the blame lies solely on the LASTMA operators. “We saw it clearly from here”, he says. “The LASTMA initially stopped an LT bus but had to let it go because a policeman was inside the bus. Immediately the LT bus left, they asked the danfo driver to stop and after a brief exchange between the driver and the LASTMA, we just saw the LASTMA trying to take over the bus.”
Another eye witness who simply identified himself as Udi claimed that he approached the LASTMA to take things easy when the incident started but they refused and instead, messed everything up.”There’s no doubt about it, they caused the whole incident with their attitude. They wanted to forcefully take the Danfo bus to their office and the people in the bus reacted to this negatively and this was the beginning of the trouble
“As you can see now, this woman is ready to die here and the traffic gridlock that it has caused is another thing entirely,” he added.
The driver of the bus however gave his own version of the story and corroborated the story of Mrs Ufoma Ezekudero and the several protesting onlookers. “I did nothing wrong”, he claims. I only stopped because I know them.
However, in their claim, the highest ranking LASTMA official at the scene of the incident who spoke to Daily Newswatch under anonymity claimed that he was not on ground when the situation started. “I am yet to know what actually happened, but when I got here, I met the conductor threatening the officials with a wheel spanner and I went to him and told him that wielding a weapon will not help his case,” he claimed.
But the woman whose goods were damaged insisted on not allowing the LASTMA van move an inch by staying directly in front of the vehicle until they paid her the sum of N40,000 which is the retail value of the destroyed goods and in a bid to calm the rising anger among the teeming onlookers who were in sympathy with the woman and were ready to lynch the LASTMA officials, the highest ranking official decided to pay her according to her wishes and the demands of the onlookers who were behind her.
He placed a call to his head office at Ejigbo and demanded that the sum of N40,000 be brought to him at the scene of the incident immediately. He also asked for the release of the impounded danfo bus as the onlookers demanded for this as a criterion to allow the LASTMA van to depart the scene.
Some minutes later, a detachment of LASTMA officials arrived and brought the money. Their failure to bring the danfo bus irked the onlookers and they insisted that the LASTMA official will not move out of the scene until the impounded bus is released
It however took the intervention of some people and with the highest ranking official desperate pleas to release the bus immediately he gets back to the office before the irate onlookers allowed the LASTMA officials to depart the scene
However, by the time Daily Newswatch got to the office of the LASTMA at Ejigbo, the story had changed. They insisted the driver must, in the first place, before they can discuss anything, refund the N40,000 they paid to the woman.
The officer who spoke to Daily Newswatch earlier said, “before I can say anything concerning this case, the danfo driver must pay the N40,000. It was because of him that this thing happened so he must bear the responsibility.”
Daily Newswatch however reminded him of his promise earlier at the scene of the incident but he refused to be drawn into that. He further explained that his superior was angry with him for paying the woman for the damaged goods. “When I told my boss that we paid the woman, he was very angry with me.”
Updating Daily Newswatch in a telephone chat on Saturday evening, the driver said that the LASTMA officials insisted that he must first of all pay the money before the bus can be released. “They said that I must pay the N40,000 before I can get my bus back. I even begged them to release the damaged turkey so that I can look for someone who will buy it and use it to recoup the money back but they refused,” he said.
However, on Monday, things changed, as the LASTMA officials ticketed the driver the exact sum of the money paid to the woman as an alibi in case their action of paying the woman backfires since Daily Newswatch covered the incident. According to the driver, who spoke to Daily Newswatch on Tuesday morning, “I gave them N20,000 but they refused. They instead ticketed me. They asked me to go and pay N40,000 to a Lagos State account before they will now decide what to do with my bus.”
The driver as at the time of going to press however claimed he had paid a total sum of N45,000 and his vehicle is yet to be released to him. Indications are however strong that the driver is been treated in such a manner because of the involvement of the press.
“I have paid around N45,000 and they say they will not release the bus to me because the press are involved since they don’t know what might come out of his report. One of them even claim now that he lost his handset and camera and they say I must pay for it,” he claimed.
Two of the LASTMA officials who were responsible for the incident were identified simply as Lawan and SM.
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