Three crushed to death as Anambra revenue agents move to arrest truck driver

At least three persons were crushed to death by a lorry carrying Kings Vegetable Oil after revenue agents tried to arrest the driver at the Onitsha end of the Niger Bridge Head Onitsha, near Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu sculpture, Anambra State.

It was gathered that three tricycles were also crushed beyond repair by the truck heading to Asaba, Delta State capital.

According to Vanguard, an eyewitness said the truck fell when revenue agents who claimed to be working for Anambra State government, were struggling with the driver for the steering of the vehicle in an attempt to stop the vehicle to collect tolls from the driver.

The truck which was coming out from the Harbour Industrial Layout area of Onitsha, driving through the Julius Berger Construction Yard to connect the Niger Bridge towards Asaba, was accosted by the log-wielding revenue agents who jump onto the doors of the drivers and conductors’ sides of the vehicles in demand for undisclosed revenue.

An eyewitness said, “As soon as they jump on the vehicle, the one on the side of the driver started struggling for the steering of the vehicle with the driver apparently to force him to stop, and in the process, he lost control of the vehicle, which crashed into the tricycles plying the area and crushing instantly the drive and some passengers they were carrying.”

Vanguard reported that one of the victims of the accident said to have had his head chopped off, while the other victims bodies were mangled, with others who were fast to jump off from the tricycles when the vehicle was skidding of the road, sustaining various degree of injuries.

According to the eyewitness, “But for the officers and men of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, who have their Unit Office, near the scene, that brought their towing vehicle to lift the fallen 911 that trapped the three tricycles, more passengers would have been killed in the avoidable accident.”

The eye witness said that revenue agent who was struggling the steering of the vehicle with the driver did not escape unhurt as he sustained serious injury when he jumped off the vehicle and managed to escape to avoid being mobbed just as his other colleagues did following the death they caused.