Trigger-happy Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps officials yesterday went on a shooting spree as they allegedly shot and injured about twenty Tricycle operators, popularly known as “Keke” who were protesting the seizure of their tricycles by the Federal Road Safety Commission, and impounded at the premises of the NSCDS.
One of the victims, Chibuzo Peters, who narrated the incident to Saturday PUNCH, said that his colleagues were protesting the seizure of their tricycles by the FRSC officials but parked on the premises of the NSCDS, when suddenly the NSCDS charged at them, shooting sporadically.
Peters who was hit by a stray bullet told Saturday PUNCH further that his colleagues were leaving the premises of the NSCDS after an amicable resolution by the road safety officials and the Keke operators to release their tricycles before they were shot at.
Some of the victims in critical condition were rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri. Fortunately, no death has been recorded as of the time of filing this report.
However, the state Public Relation of the NSCDS, Chimezirim Lowel,l denied any shooting by his colleagues. He maintained that the officials only applied a crowd dispersal technique to disperse the Keke operators who he said took advantage of the situation to barricade the road and extort motorists.
“We did not shoot at anybody, we only applied our crowd dispersal technique, most of them were already forcing motorists to give them money, so when we chased them, some of them fell inside the gutter and got injured,” Lowell said.
He further explained that the tricycle operators had a fracas with the FRSC officials on beat close to their office. “They had a misunderstanding with the FRSC officials, in the process they called us to help them because some of them were beaten up by the Keke boys, we only went there to save situation.”
Meanwhile, the protesting tricycle operators grounded the state, halting vehicular movements in their protest after the incident.
There were gun shots fired in the air to disperse the crowd, no one was shot at and I didn't see anyone shot. I was driving to orji with my boss when we met that hold up. We had to turn back, at about 1.34 pm that gunshot incident occurred.