Angry tricycle riders in Owerri, the Imo State capital, shut down the Aba-Owerri expressway was on Tuesday while protesting the death of their colleague hit by a truck belonging to BUA Cement Company.
According to a report by Punch Metro, an eyewitness identified as Silas Okere who is at the accident scene, disclosed that it was the bid to escape from officials of Environmental Transformation Commission, an agency of the state government that led to the accident.
He said further that the truck driver with the number plate, Jigawa KZR 217 ZT, veered off the tarred road in a bid to escape from ENTRACO officials who were giving him a hot chase with Siena vehicle.
The eyewitness said the truck driver veered off the road and rammed into a parked tricycle and killed the operator instantly.
According to him, immediately the accident happened, the ENTRACO officials, police escort, the driver of the truck and his conductor fled, abandoning their truck which was loaded with 600 bags of cement.
Angered by the death of one of them, the tricycle riders besieged the ENTRACO corporate office on Owerri-Aba road in a bid to set it ablaze.
They were, however, prevented from carrying out the act by some police officers led by the Owerri Area Commander, Francis Bassong, an Assistant Commissioner of Police.
The tricycle operators then resorted to blocking the major road, causing difficulty in vehicular and pedestrian movement within the area.
The protesters called on the state Governor, Rochas Okorocha, to sanitise the commission.
The Managing Director of ENTRACO, Jeff Nwoha, said that in as much he regretted the death of the tricycle operator, his death was not caused by his men.
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