There was chaos around Coconut area of the Tin-Can Island Port in the early hours of Thursday when some truck drivers clashed with some ‘area boys’ from Ajagunle over the road obstruction caused by trucks.
BusinessDay gathered that about four truck drivers were allegedly shot and rushed to the hospital for sustaining several degrees of injuries.
Confirming this, Innua Mohammed, chairman, Dry Cargo Section of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) said the fight, which impeded many port users from accessing the port through the Tin-Can axis, started in the morning of Thursday.
Innua said that officials of the union were attacked by the hoodlums who were alleged members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW)
“At night, these area boys mobilised themselves with police escorts from Trinity Police Station and attacked some of the drivers, who were sleeping in their trucks. One driver was shot while four others were matcheted, and trucks were destroyed. It escalated to the point that they wanted to start burning some trucks,” he said.
He said the area boys were annoyed that trucks have hindered free movement of their buses coming out from Ajegunle area.
“We were in our trucks and suddenly we saw the area boys coming out, matchetting our members and shooting some of us. I have personally taken three people to the hospital. My conductor is currently at the hospital, they have extracted 18 bullets from his body already,” said one truck driver, who gave his name as Ade.
According to him, hoodlum, who claim to be area boys extort as much as N80,000 from trucks trying to pass through Ajegunle in order to beat traffic.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
