A police driver has killed two people while attempting to stop an overloaded commercial bus on the Asaba-Ibusa-Ogwashi-Uku Expressway, in the Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State.
Several sources, who witnessed the accident, told PUNCH Metro that the driver of the commercial bus and a male suspect, who the police were taking to the state command in Asaba, died on the spot.
A female suspect, who the policemen had also arrested, reportedly passed out and was rushed to a hospital.
A witness, who identified himself simply as Uche, told our correspondent that the police van, with inscription Anti-Crime Patrol, Kwale division, was coming from the Ogwashi-Uku area on Thursday around 2pm when the incident happened.
He said the police, upon sighting the overloaded bus, started chasing it.
Uche added that the bus was heading towards the Ughelli area when the police van, carrying three policemen and two suspected criminals, crashed into it to force it to a halt.
Although one of the bus passengers survived, the bus driver, identified as Chinedu Ojimadu, was not so lucky as he was burnt to death in the presence of sympathisers and the policemen.
Our correspondent, who was returning to Warri from Asaba, the Delta State capital, saw debris of the bus at the scene of the accident at Umuehea Junction in Ibusa.
It was gathered that the policemen, in order to avoid a reprisal from sympathisers, called for help from the Ibusa Police Station.
“This accident was a flagrant abuse of power by those who are supposed to enforce the law. The policemen veered off their lane to stop a bus on motion from a slope, which resulted in the bus exploding.
“The incident must be thoroughly investigated. The three policemen must be fished out to pay for their crime. They killed my brother for no just cause. They watched my brother burn without doing anything,” a relative of the deceased driver told our correspondent on the telephone on Sunday.
A senior police officer at the Kwale Police Division confirmed the incident, but directed our correspondent to the spokesperson for the state command.
The spokesperson for the Delta State Police Command, SP Celestina Kalu, also confirmed the incident to our correspondent on Sunday, but said she could not tell if there was any casualty.
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