ZHUL-QI’DA 25, 1429 A.H.
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 20, 2008
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Kano motorists in 3-hour hold-up...As tanker driver,traffic warden clash, police cough out N25,000
By USMAN GWADABE
THE settlement of a tanker driver to the tune of N25,000 by the Kano state Police Command averted what could have resulted in a serious clash between tanker drivers and police traffic wardens at Kantin Kwari Market junction by IBB Way in the metropolis yesterday.
According to eyewitness, trouble started when a traffic warden ordered the said tanker driver who was said to be on high speed to stop.
Upon the failure of the driver to obey the order, the eyewitness narrated, the traffic warden who was holding a stick, smashed one of the side-trafficators of the vehicle and broke it into pieces.
On realizing the damages done to his trafficator, the tanker driver stopped and instantly phoned his colleagues who rushed to the scene and blocked the road for about three hours in solidarity protest for their colleague.
The eye-witness further told Daily Triumph that the drivers had demanded the sum of N25,000 as compensation for the smashed trafficator, a situation that caused serious traffic hold-up at the junction.
In the ensuing melee, an officer from the state police command believed to be an assistant commissioner of police was reported to have intervened and whose mediation paid after settling the driver on behalf of the command the said amount before smooth traffic flow was restored .
Contacted on the matter, the state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Baba Muhammad confirmed the incidence and the payment of the money, adding that the traffic warden who caused the problem had already been arrested while the driver would equally be punished for taking the law into his own hands.
On his part, the chairman of the State Tanker Drivers Association of Nigeria, Comrade Salisu Muhammad, also confirmed the dispute, assuring that the matter has however, been resolved amicably.
Other eye-witnesses at the scene expressed displeasure over the dispute which according to them, had crippled their day-to-day activities for hours, appealing to the state police command to stop their men and officers from using sticks to control motorists.
