Female Soldier Sprayed BRT Vehicle With Petrol - Witness

A witness at the ongoing inquiry into the July 4 Ikorodu road
mayhem,Mr. Razak Mustapha, told the three-man inquiry tribunal on
Wednesday that it was a female soldier who sprayed the Bus Rapid
Transit vehicles with petrol before the vehicles were set ablaze.

Three BRT vehicles had allegedly been set ablaze by men of the
Nigerian Army at Palmgrove Bus Stop on July 4, 2014, during the
violence along the highway that lasted for more than three hours.

The incident led to the death of a soldier.

Mustapha, a staff of Mutual Model Transport Ltd., a sub-operator of
the LAGBUS, appeared before the panel, headed by retired Justice
Ebenezer Adebajo, to give his testimony.

The tribunal had been charged with the duty of investigating the said mayhem.

Mustapha, in his testimony, told the tribunal that on July 4, he was
assigned by his company to tow a BRT vehicle that had broken down at
Palmgrove to the BRT depot.

The witness said he got to the place at about 5.30am on July 4 and was
later joined by the company's mechanic, Mr. Ikechukwu Umeaku.

Mustapha said while he was attempting to start the bus, he discoverd
a corpse inside the vehicle and immediately informed his colleague.

He told the tribunal that he and his colleague rushed out of the
vehicle and he immediately made a phone call to his boss, giving an
account of what he saw.

Mustapha said while he was waiting for further directive, a man
approached the bus, climbed in, apparently to see the corpse.

According to Mustapha, it was the man who later informed some
soldiers, who were passing by that the corpse of a soldier was lying
in the bus.

Mustapha said, "They (the soldiers) came out and entered the bus. They
saw the body and checked his identity card. They now assigned two
soldiers to guard the bus and left.

"It was when they came back that they started shouting and destroying
the bus. Then some of them started stopping other BRT buses that were
passing by.

"There was confusion and people started gathering. Then a female
soldier came and she started pouring fuel inside the bus.

"After that I saw three buses, one in blue colour and two in red red
colour on fire."

Giving his own version of the story, the mechanic, Umeaku, who was
with Mustapha at the time of the incident, told the tribunal that he
was assigned to repair the BRT vehicle that broke down at Palmgrove
and two other ones at New Garage, Ojota and Orile.

According to Umeaku, the vehicles he was assigned to go and repair had
all broken down on July 3 at about 9.00pm.

Umeaku told the tribunal that he only came to Palmgrove after he had
gone to fix the other two vehicles which broke down at New Garage,
Ojota and Orile respectively.

The witness said when he got to Palmgrove, he saw a crowd of area boys
gathered around the bus and so he was unable to approach the bus to
carry out his mission.

According to him, the next morning when he returned, he met Mustapha
already waiting for him.

"It was when we were inside the bus trying to repair it that Mustapha
told me that there was a dead man inside the bus and that we should
come down.

"I did not see the body. It was Mustapha who told me. So I ran away
and went to report the matter to my boss at the depot," Umeaku said.