Igando Bus Stop today
Igando Bus Stop today

There was heavy shooting at Igando, a suburb of Lagos, at noon today. The shooting which was witnessed by our reporter was by men of the Nigeria Police.

It was all in an attempt by the police to disperse hoodlums who attempted to block the Isheri-LASU Expressway with two commercial buses and bonfire in protest of the alleged killing of a bus driver yesterday by a policewoman.

The crisis point was the front of the NNPC petrol filling station just by Igando Bus stop where the death of the driver, according to eye witnesses, occurred yesterday.

The eye witnesses say there was an argument between the policewoman and the deceased commercial bus driver. The policewoman, they claim, pushed the driver who stumbled backwards and fell into an open concrete gutter by the side of the road. The driver is said to have hit his head on the concrete edge of the gutter before rolling inside

Igando commuters running around the scene of the incident
Commuters running from the scene of the incident

Apparently seeing that the driver was lying lifeless in the gutter, according to witnesses, the policewoman escaped from the scene before hundreds of passersby, marketwomen and street urchins gathered around the spot of the tragedy.

Policemen from the Igando Divisional Police Headquarters had to fire into the air to disperse the crowd and gain control of the situation.

This afternoon however, the hoodlums were obviously out to tell the police that it was not all over. They barricaded part of the expressway by rolling two buses across it. They then made to set fire on disused tyres which they had rolled onto the road.

That was when a heavy detachment of armed policemen moved onto the expressway from the direction of the Igando Divisional Police Headquarters, firing into the air as they advanced towards the blockade and beyond it.

They rolled the buses off the road, extinguished the bonfire and scared away the protesters. That effectively freed the Isheri-LASU expressway for motorists. By 1:00 pm, it was all as if nothing had happended around Igando Bus Stop. The nearby market was full of activity and commuters moved freely again.

What remains to be known is how the police will handle the death of the bus driver.