Medical workers are now battling to save the life of an Abia State Traffic Obstruction Taskforce member who was hit with iron bars while beating up a bus driver around the General Post Office along Aba road in the capital city of Umuahia for allegedly running against the traffic.
Trouble ensued when the bus driver was violently stopped around the Tower area of the city, just as the muscular taskforce member whose name was given as Jah less started throwing punches at the driver in quick succession after forcing him out of the driver’s seat to the surprise of many who were there gathered.
The commotion drew a lot of onlookers some of who tried their best to stop the fight.
The task force member was said to have ignored all the plea by a passerby to stop violent abuse on the driver, including that of a mobile policeman who intervened.
Our correspondent gathered that the venue had witnessed another violent fight between two commercial tricycle operators a couple of minutes before the taskforce member started beating up the bus driver, caused traffic gridlock along the ever-busy Aba road, with motorists applying extra caution not to ram into the crowd attracted by the fight.
The scenario pumped up its volume when other taskforce members arrived at the scene as the member who has been bullying the driver started chasing and giving the helpless driver more deadly punches that left him staggering and gasping for breath.
In two occasions, a tricycle and a car narrowly missed hitting the driver who was thrown onto the busy road by his tormentor until his conductor came to his rescue with a heavy iron bar which he threw at the bullying taskforce member and which sent him hitting his head on the tarred road like a tree trunk in the face of a wind storm.
Immediately the taskforce member hit the tarred road he became motionless even as passersby, shop owners and onlookers around the scene of the incident scampered to safety, leaving just other members of the task force team to attend to him.
He was later conveyed in a tricycle to the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia for medical attention while his attacker was first taken to the railway police station before he was transferred to the Central Police Station along Bende road, meters away from the scene of the incident.
Eyewitness account disclosed that the task force team had alleged that the driver caused obstruction around the City Centre area which is almost a kilometer to the scene of the incident and that the injured taskforce member pursued the vehicle until he was able to stop it at the tower.
As at the time of this report, the driver who escaped with his Hummer Bus remained at large while the victim was still receiving medical attention at the FMC.