So who is the liar?
Despite being caught in the act, the Nigerian army has denied attacking the Lagos BRT buses on Friday!
The soldiers allegedly burnt BRT buses said to be worth about N100
million, and beat up the bus drivers and witnesses of their rampage over the death of a colleague of theirs.
The Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Army, Gen.
Olajide Olaleye, has said “area boys,” not Nigerian soldiers carried
out the rampage.
“It’s not true that soldier destroyed buses or set any bus on fire.
What happened was that a BRT bus knocked down a soldier and killed him.
As usual in Lagos so area boys gathered and a few soldiers stopped at
the scene as well. The GOC has dispatched military policemen to the
scene to help restore law and order.” he told Premium Times.
In another swift reaction, The LAGBUS Asset Management Limited, operators of LAGBUS, have said it was not a BRT bus
that killed a soldier.
Explaining
the accident, Abiodun Apata, Project Manager, Mutual Model Transports,
one of the LAGBUS Franchises, said the company only found a corpse after
an eventful night and went to report it to the police.
“By 10 p.m. on Thursday night, one of our buses broke down at Onipanu; by 11 p.m., a rescue team with a van went to the scene to tow the bus.
“Unfortunately,
area boys started stoning our team which made our men to leave.
Meanwhile, the driver put on hazard lights and C- Caution to alert
motorists of the breakdown.
“By 5amon Friday morning, before the
rescue team got to the scene, a corpse had been deposited in our bus and
a motorcycle parked behind it.
“When we saw it, we reported the
case to the Pedro Police Station, Somolu, but before we got back to the
scene, soldiers had burnt down five BRT buses and one belonging to
LAGBUS.
The Head of Operations of BRT, Johnson Oguntade, said BRT vehicles have been withdrawn from the streets to prevent more damage.
He said the deceased soldier was not hit by a BRT vehicle
“I do not still understand why we are suffering for what we never caused.
Why they are burning our buses is not known,” Mr. Oguntade said.