Iniobong Sunday
Fear of reprisal has enveloped Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital following the alleged murder Sunday evening of a tricycle operator by a Hausa truck driver at the popular Itam International market in the state.
Eyewitness said the truck driver and Keke operator were said to have engaged in a heated argument over an obstruction of the major access – Uyo-Itam Road – into the market.
Trouble started when the driver trying to negotiate the space to park for easy off-loading of the rice meant for the Yuletide season, was obstructed by a tricycle operator and tables used by traders to display their wares, forcing a traffic snarl, Straightnews gathered.
Also read: Nigerians fume about killing of Man over alleged blasphemy
Angered by the stubborn resolve not to clear the road, the Hausa truck driver was said to have emerged from his loaded truck with a matchet with which he dealt a cut to the head of the deceased, who later died of exhaustion due to excess blood loss before getting to the hospital.
Recalling the incident, Akan Bassey, an eye witness, told our correspondent that the incident happened at about 7:00 p.m. and lasted for about an hour before Police operatives arrived at the scene to restore normalcy.
He explained: “The truck driver was angry because of refusal by the tricycle operator and business owners to clear their wares on the road to properly park for off-loading of the rice. When the driver alighted from the truck to try and clear the road, he met stiff resistance. In the process, he brought out his matchet, cut the tricycle man’s head.”
Straightnews learned the outrage that followed led to looting of the rice and torching of the truck by hoodlums, leaving dozens of other victims injured, while the whereabouts of the driver remain unknown at the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, the market has been shut and taken over by operatives drafted from the nearby Itam Divisional Police station, even as the fire combatants from the state Fire Service were able to contain the inferno and saved the truck from being completely burnt.
Worried by the anticipated reprisal, the Alhaji Alhassan Sadauki, leader of the Hausa/Fulani community, has sued for peace and appealed to the law enforcement agencies to be pro-active and diligent in containing the crisis from snowballing into a full-scale ethnic war.
“We are appealing for calm, while urging security operatives to be diligent in their investigations,” said Sadauki, who led a delegation of the Hausa/Fulani community leaders for a truce meeting with the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Itam, at the time of filing this report.
The state Commissioner of Police (CP), Dr. Olatoye Durosinmi, and the Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Odiko MacDon, were in the weekly security meeting as neither could pick calls nor respond to text messages to their phones over the incident.
When Straightnews called PPRO on telephone Monday for confirmation, he said he was yet to be briefed, adding ‘‘I will call you as soon as I get the story.’’
