By Udo Akam-Alo, ABAKALIKI
There was pandemonium in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state on Thursday as a soldier and a traffic warden clashed over violation of traffic rule by a commercial tricyclist.
The ugly incident which took place at the Udensi roundabout, attracted some passers-by who appeared disappointed by the public display of shame.
Some eyewitnesses who narrated the incident told Newsmen at the scene that the clash was as a result of traffic rule violation, which prompted a traffic warden to impound a tricycle.
A newspaper vendor (name withheld) who was at the scene narrated thus:
“In the morning, one keke (tricyclist) man violated the traffic rule and they (police traffic warden) arrested him. When they wanted to take the keke to the station, the rider told the officer that the keke belongs to an army officer. Before I could know what was happening, an Army officer arrived the scene and started asking ‘who is Uche’. Then, an officer (traffic warden) approached there to find out what was happening and immediately, the army man started slapping him. So in the process, they started fighting.”
Similarly, a girl (name withheld) who sells bread and groundnuts at the scene also witnessed the incident and gave a different account this way:
“An Army man was in a keke when the traffic light showed green and they were moving when a police officer at the area ordered the keke man to stop and hand over the key; the Army officer in the keke said ‘no’ that the keke man was not wrong.
At that moment, the police officer then slapped the keke man, the army came down and asked the why he should slap the keke man and that if he tries such again, he will retaliate on behalf of the keke rider. That was when the police officer slapped the rider for the second time and then the army man retaliated.
At the sight of this, all other police officers joined and started to beat the army man,” she explained.
In another dimension, a lady passerby who witnessed the scene, blamed the soldier for loosing his temper on a warden without finding out the initial cause of the matter.
However, the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Loveth Odah when contacted, described the incident as an internal issue which has been resolved.
Prompt News learnt that it took the intervention of the Commissioner of Police and state Cantonment Commandant to resolve it.
“It was a minor issue not a clash. The soldier was not directly involved.
The Cantonment Commandant and the Commissioner of Police came and we have settled the matter,” Odah said.
