THREE KILLED AS CUSTOM OFFICERS CHASE DOWN BUS

•Another woman who died in the accident

Three ladies aged between 25 and 30 years died Thursday afternoon after the hummer bus in which they were travelling was knocked off the Lagos-Benin highway by an operational vehicle driven by operatives of the Nigerian Customs Service.

The commuter bus with registeration number EDO AKA 35 LG carrying second hand clothes also known as okirika, summersaulted during a hot chase by Customs officials from the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Ikeja from one of their checkpoints in Ijebu Ode.

The driver of the bus allegedly refused to stop when flagged down at their checkpoint which resulted in the tragic chase.

•One of the victims knocked down by customs

According to the driver who was in severe pains, having lost one of his legs in the accident, when the Customs pick up van could not overtake him, it hit his bus at the rear which caused the vehicle to summersault several times into the bush at a place indigenes called J3.

On sensing that the bus had crashed into the bush, the Customs officials beat a hasty retreat to avoid being attacked by members of the public that immediately rushed to the scene of the accident.

Three women in the bus died on the spot and the other injured victims were brought out of the bus and were writhing in pains.

•Another woman who died in the accident

There was no policeman or road safety official on hand to assist them.

Until the time our correspondent, who was on his way to Port Harcourt, left the accident scene, the corpses of the three women and the victims were still lying there.

•One of the three women knocked down by customs

Some of the sympathisers at the scene lamented that sometime ago, road safety officials had equally chased some passengers to their death in the same area.

They called on appropriate authorities to check the excesses of law enforcement officials on the road.