1 dead, 3 injured as emblem revenue agents, tipper drivers clash

By GLORIA ANAEZE, Onitsha

One person was reportedly crushed to death and three others sustained various degrees of injuries last Tuesday at the notorious Upper Iweka axis, Onitsha, Anambra State, when emblem revenue agents and a tipper Driver, Mr. Chukwudubem Ifesinachi, engaged themselves in a bloody clash.

This paper gathered that trouble started when the tipper driver was coming from the Bridgehead end of the River Niger.

According to an eye witness who simply identified himself as Onyeji, “on getting to Upper Iweka, one out of about five emblem revenue agents, mounted on the tipper that was laden with sand and demanded from the driver the payment emblem receipts for one year”.

“The driver told him that he had the receipts with him only that he had not placed them on the windscreen for easy identification.”

“In the process, the revenue agent demanded for some money (bribe) but the driver told him he had no money with him and that he had the receipts”.

At this jucture, he said the revenue agent forcefully dished his hand inside the pigeonhole to collect money and the driver pushed him down.

“He mounted the tipper again and started struggling the steering with the driver as the vehicle was descending and both of them fell off the tipper.

“The vehicle that was then out of control, immediately crushed to death a driver with one of the popular transport companies who was crossing the other side of the expressway after repairing his tyres, as it hit a commutter bus and a 40-foot container on the process.”

He said that about three of the occupants of the bus who sustained various degrees of injuries thanked God that they escaped death. (Daily Independent)