Passengers en route to Enugu, Sunday, scampered for safety following an encounter between vigilantes of Nike Community and suspected firewood thieves......Read The Full Article>>.....Read The Full Article>>
The incident, which occurred at about 10am along the notorious Enugu-Ugwuogo road, witnessed passengers in a Siena bus from the university community of Nsukka sustain varying degrees of injuries when they were jumping down from the vehicle and making their ways into the bush.
“It was out of fear,” narrated one of them on Monday. “The vehicle I was in ran into a pickup carrying wood trying to evade the arrest of members of a vigilante group.
“They were fighting in the middle of the road.
“Our driver suddenly halted, and ran away from the vehicle. That was when fear caught up with most of us. And we scampered for safety. Many passengers were injured in the process.”
Another passenger said, “I was scared because there was a robbery at the same spot on Saturday.
“I ran because of confusion. I didn’t know who was who. I saw members of the vigilante group coming out of the bush in a style I didn’t understand. I couldn’t be sure if they were suspected kidnappers.”
Johnson sustained injuries during the process. He expressed surprise over what he called police nonchalance during the encounter.
He said, “Our vehicle overtook a police van. Shortly, we saw some vigilantes fighting with about two men in a moving vehicle on the road.
“In that confused moment, the police patrol vehicle reversed. They later were asking a passenger that ran towards where they parked what was happening.
“It was when they understood what happened that they came to the scene to ask us what happened.
“That was about 45 minutes after the hot encounter. By then the suspected wood stealers had disappeared into nearby bushes.”
THE WHISTLER gathered that the owners of the wood allegedly stole them, and they were reported to a vigilante.
According to an eye witness, “The firewood suspected thieves overpowered the lone vigilante, and drove off. But other members of the vigilante group heard about the incident and laid an ambush.
“The ensuing fight caused pandemonium. While the vigilantes were calling the wood dealers thieves, the wood dealers were calling them kidnappers.”
It was gathered that the DPO of a police station closest to the place later came on-the-spot-assessment of the place.
It is not clear if there was arrest as the suspected firewood dealers were still at large when the DPO arrived.
