The Ebonyi Police command said on Sunday that none of its personnel or driver of articulated vehicle was killed during Friday’s squabble at the Abakaliki/ Enugu express road.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that some police personnel and articulated vehicle drivers had engaged in a squabble at the Enugu/ Ebonyi border end of the road over an alleged refusal by a driver to offer financial gratification to a policeman.
The latter had reportedly attacked the policeman for assaulting their member, leading to a squabble and subsequent blocking of the road by the drivers for more than six hours.
ASP Loveth Odah, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) , who narrated the details to a NAN correspondent in an interview, debunked speculations that policemen died in the fracas.
“The corpse discovered by passers-by and passengers inside a bush around the area, has been confirmed to be that of a lunatic.
“No police personnel or articulated vehicle driver died from the squabble as being reported, but the concerned driver and policeman are recuperating in the hospital,” she said.
Odah noted that the policeman, Hillary Igwe of the Federal Highway Patrol unit, who reportedly attacked the drive, would be sanctioned by the command after receiving treatment at the hospital.
“He will be seriously sanctioned for the attack on the driver, which the command views as indiscipline and capable of bringing its image into disrepute.
“The drivers are not accusing the command of any wrong-doing because we do not condone unruly behaviour from our personnel,” she said.
She however urged drivers and other road users to be patient and civil whenever such incident occured, instead of taking laws into their hands.
“The articulated vehicle driver could have alerted us over the incident and we would have surely handled it professionally.
“It could have averted the unpleasant situation witnessed on the road that day, with calls flying all over, of the blockage of the ever busy express road due to the squabble,” she said.
Odah said that normalcy had since been restored on the road, revealing that the intervention of a Deputy Commissioner of Police saved the situation. (NAN)