Soldier beats bus driver to death

Trouble started when the driver of a commer-cial bus with registration No. LSG 451 XG, Bashiru Adebayo, demanded for transport fare from the soldier since he was not in uniform, which angered the soldier. Payment of transport fare is generally waived for members of the armed forces and police in Lagos, but it was gathered that the driver insisted on collecting the fare from this soldier as he was not in uniform.
The driver then parked the bus by the BRT terminus at Obalende to collect his money. This resulted in a physical combat between him and the soldier. Shortly into some hot exchanges, the driver slumped at the middle of road and died, witnesses said.
A crowd gathered around the fallen driver while others chased the now fleeing soldier and got him close to Dodan Barracks.
Sources at the Force Headquarters Annex, Obalende said the body of the driver was taken to the Lagos Island Hospital where he was confirmed dead.
It took the intervention of the Area Commander at the Lion Building to restore as some angry people, majority of whom were members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) demanded that the soldier be released to them.
Witnesses said the soldier was first taken to the Lion Building Police Station before being handed over to military authorities. But neither Lagos police spokesperson, Ngozi Braide, nor 81 Division authorities were on hand to react to this stody before press time yesterday.