LASTMA official “kills” 5-month-old baby, leaves others with broken legs, hands…runs away
An apparently overzealous officer of the Lagos State government, Monday, reportedly took an action that culminated in the death of an innocent 5-month-old baby.
The man, an officer of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), was trying to arrest an “erring” danfo bus driver when things turned ugly.
Here’s what an eyewitness who doesn’t want to be named told NewsroomNG about the tragedy which occurred around 12 noon:
The danfo bus was moving along the service lane a few stops before Awoyokun bus stop around Onipanu axis of Ikorodu highway. The driver picked up passengers at a wrong bus stop so LASTMA tried to arrest him.
A LASTMA officer jumped into the bus, sat beside a male passenger at the front and demanded the driver hand the vehicle over. But the driver refused. He kept moving. The LASTMA officer started dragging the steering with him.
In a flash, the LASTMA man forcefully removed the vehicle’s key from the ignition. I think this locked the steering wheel with the bus now facing the refuse truck.
The next thing we saw was the danfo ramming into the truck.
Another eyewitness recounted how he saw the LASTMA officer, with one hand appearing broken, climbing out of the bus via the now shattered front windshield and escaping like a character from the movies.
His hand was broken. He climbed out while we were trying to save the lives of the passengers and the driver. He stood on top of the bus and then jumped on the refuse truck. From there, he jumped over a nearby fence and ran away. I saw him. You can see his blood on the danfo bus and on the refuse truck.
Another witness confirmed the LASTMA officer’s escape style to NewsroomNG.
One of the women injured in the crash reportedly demanded to get off the bus after the LASTMA officer started struggling with the driver but couldn’t as the driver kept moving.
At least 10 occupants of the vehicle, including the driver and conductor, ended up with broken legs and arms. About four of them were women.
The man sitting at the front of the bus reportedly got a deep cut around his eyes. His hands were also broken as he protected his chest from the impact, we were told.
They were taken to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, which is not far from the scene of the crash.
Another woman involved in the crash was reportedly on an errand to buy a drug for her reportedly ill husband. She bought the drug but couldn’t deliver it. She ended up at Igbobi, with broken legs.
A hospital source who doesn’t want to be named told NewsroomNG another woman involved in the crash lost the five-month-old baby she was carrying.
The faultless angel was crushed to death.
A pregnant woman who was also in the bus was not so unfortunate. She reportedly escaped without a scratch.
But she was in shock and could barely walk, initially. Occupants of a house nearby were said to have helped calm her down, then paid a cabman to driver her home.
Many “area boys” filled the area after the crash and were overheard swearing about how they would have “finished” the LASTMA officer had he not escaped.
They said his action resulted in the needless death and the serious injuries.
One of the victims of the crash has a relation in the military, we were told. A citizen reporter related how a man wearing a Nigeria Air Force top and military trousers showed up at Igbobi hospital demanding the whereabouts of the LASTMA officer.
We were told that top LASTMA officials met with some “powers that be” and agreed to bear the financial cost of treating the bus driver and his conductor.
But nothing was said about the medical bills of the injured passengers who have now been abandoned to whatever their families can afford, a source told NewsroomNG.
“We don’t want this thing to get to the top,” a high-ranking LASTMA official was reported to have said.
A citizen reporter said she saw the husband of a woman injured in the crash withdrawing money from an ATM at Igbobi hospital to pay for his wife’s medical bills.
