There was fear that an ethnic tension would rise as a truck driver hacked to death a tricycle rider popularly known as Keke NAPEP in Akwa Ibom State’s Itu Local Government Area LGA.
According to eyewitnesses, following the adamancy of the Keke rider to allow the Hausa truck driver station his vehicle by the roadside for stress-free discharging of his bags of rice, by using some tables used by businessmen and women to display their goods in the market, to block him, the resultant effect was a traffic jam.
Due to the subsequent misunderstanding, the truck driver jumped down from his truck while carrying a machete,which he used to hack the tricycle rider, who subsequently passed away after bleeding profusely due to the machete wounds sustained.
In addition to the above-mentioned assertions,an eyewitness who goes by the name, Akan Bassey revealed to the Punch that the terrific occurence took place on Sunday evening at approximately 7 o’clock and continued for approximately one hour until some police officers were deployed to the scene to calm down the tense situation.
Bassey explained that, “the truck driver was angry because of the refusal of the tricycle operator and business owners to clear their wares off the road for the truck to be properly parked for the rice to be offloaded. When he alighted from the truck to clear the road, he met stiff resistance, and what he could do was to bring out a machete, and in the process, cut the tricycle man in the head”.
Unfortunately,it was reported that some hooligans took advantage of the situation to steal the rice and set truck ablaze, while the driver ran away from the scene after realizing that the victim was dead.
The event had caused the market to be closed for a particular period of time; although, it has recommenced activities, as officers from the Itam police station, which is not too far from the region where the incident happened, swung into action to restore normalcy.
In the meantime,while calling for peace, Alhaji Alhassan Sadauki, the head of the Hausa and Fulani tribe in the state, has pleaded with the state’s security authorities to take preventative measures so that the current issue does not escalate into an ethnic conflict.
Conclusively,Odiko Macdon, who serves as the state police’s public relations officer (PPRO), assured everyone that the command take full control of the case as well as tracking down the suspect.
