An angry mob on Sunday set a heavy duty truck ablaze for crushing a motorcycle operator along the popular Abakiliki-Ogoja highway in Abakiliki metropolis in Ebonyi state.
Daily Trust learnt that the motorcyclist died on the spot while the woman who the deceased was carrying survived but with serious injuries.
Samuel Nwite, a vulcanizer in the area, told Daily Trust that the deceased was coming with his passenger from the mechanic village route to join the highway when he was crushed by the truck.
“So the accident would have been avoided if the truck driver who was coming into the town from Onuebonyi axis was on the speed lane but he was not or if the bike man had looked very well before joining the highway.
“That was what provoked the youths and others who saw the accident to start beating the driver and his conductor while that was happening, another group were interested in saving the life of the woman he was carrying. The accident happened around 2pm.
“Yes! the bike man died at the spot but the woman he was carrying survived but her leg was badly injured in fact broken and I doubt if she would even walk again with the leg
“And for the driver, I also doubt if he will survive the beating they gave him because some people hit him with stone, stick and rod and it was the policemen that stopped the angry mob from killing him here.
“But the conductor was lucky because he ran through the highway not the bush as the driver did,” he explained.
When contacted, the police Public Relations Officer, Loveth Odah, said normalcy has been restored in the area.
She, however, warned youths in the state not to take laws into their own hands but to always report such matters to the police for appropriate action.
