A number of persons including policemen and civilians were on Wednesday afternoon injured while five were arrested following a bloody clash between the Lagos State Taskforce and suspected hoodlums.
The clash, which took place on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, involved policemen attached to the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences. It was said to have occurred when the taskforce, led by Yinka Egbeyemi mobilised to the Abule-Egba axis of the expressway on enforcement against commercial buses driving against traffic flow (one-way).
Bala Elkana, spokesperson of the Lagos police command, who confirmed the incident in a telephone conversation with BusinessDay, said that one of the commercial bus drivers on sighting the taskforce, sped off dangerously, causing his conductor to fall off the vehicle and injured himself.
“Rather than wait, the driver escaped to mobilise hoodlums, who came in their numbers to launch attack on the taskforce operatives, resulting in some policemen and the hoodlums sustaining injuries. The injured were taken to the hospital for medical treatment.”
The police have arrested five of the hoodlums and impounded about four vehicles,” said Elkana, who dispelled earlier rumour that the conductor was gunned down.
“The conductor is not dead. The police took him to the hospital and he is receiving medical attention.”
Chair of the task force, Egbyemi, also denied his men shot and killed people in the fracas. “We have arrested some of them and they are in our custody,” said Egbeyemi.
The incident triggered scarcity of public transportation, as commercial drivers withdrew their buses, leaving hundreds of commuters stranded at bus stops along the corridor.
