Trailer drivers have blocked
Zaria-Kaduna highway over the
alleged shooting of one of their
colleagues by soldiers at a
military check point at the
dismantled toll gate near Tudun
Wadan Dankande in Igabi Local
Government, Kaduna State.
A staff of Nagarta Radio and
some of the drivers caught in
the traffic jam, who spoke to
PREMIUM TIMES via telephone
said the situation has
degenerated into chaos with
commuters abandoning their
vehicles to trek the long
distance.
Salisu Babayo, a commercial
driver, alleged that a soldier
shot at the trailer driver for
refusing to give the soldier
N200.
“The trailer driver insisted on
giving them N100, which they
declined and opened fire on him
around 11:00pm Sunday night,”
Mr. Babayo said. “That was
when the situation degenerated
when other trailer drivers and
many vehicles protesting the
soldiers’ action blocked the road
around 3:00am.
“The traffic gridlock is getting
worse. Right now, it is around
Kawo-Maraban Jos, Birnin Yero
and is going beyond Jaji
cantonment. It will get up to
beyond Zaria if the authorities
do not do anything to resolve
the issue. Some soldiers who
managed to get to the scene had
to leave because they could not
control the situation.”
He said hunger and fatigue was
beginning to take effect on commuters as
food vendors make brisk business.
“Those soldiers at that check point have for
long been extorting N200 from drivers,” Mr.
Babayo said. “Sometimes, they will also ask
passengers who do not have national
identity card to drop N200 and go. So, we
are used to their action. What is strange is
why they had to shoot a driver who gave
them N100?”
The spokesperson of 1 Mechanized Division
Nigerian Army, Abdul Usman, a colonel,
when contacted on phone said personnel
have been drafted to investigate the issue.
“We are trying to find out exactly what
happened,” he said. “Some personnel have
gone to find out. We will give you details
later.”
source: premium times

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