Driver, passengers escape deadly crash as police “chased us for bribe”
As recounted by a Lagosian.
Sometimes I wonder what purpose the Nigerian police should serve – protect or harass us.
I’ve heard stories of Nigerians being accosted by police but never have I experienced it first-hand.
Hurrying to work on Friday morning, I boarded a bus going to Ikeja inside. While in the bus, the driver had to stop at a bus stop to drop off some passengers.
After dropping them, some men were standing on the road blocking him from driving out. He honked several times but they didn’t move. So he drove past them (without hitting any of them though).
Unknown to him, they were casually dressed policemen and they were really pissed that he drove past them like that (and they probably wanted to arrest him and demanded a huge sum for bail).
All of a sudden they smashed the side mirror and started hitting the driver, pulling his shirt, in an attempt to pull him out of the bus. The driver, to save himself, had to drive past them in a rush.
We were just three passengers left in the bus and we were stunned at the turn of event. All of a sudden, we noticed two police bikes each with two uniformed police officers pursuing the bus.
The driver had to drive for his life, almost crashing into another vehicle (which would have caused a ghastly accident, more trouble).
He took an unexpected turning, carrying us very far away from where we were meant to drop, and so the police pursuing him lost track of him.
The good thing is that he escaped the police, but then, at our expense.
We all had to walk back to the bus stop (Glad I got to work just in time!)
As I walked into the office I couldn’t help but wonder what exactly would have happened if they had caught up with him, or even if the driver had hit the other car. Innocent souls would probably have…God forbid!.
