UPDATED: Truck Drivers Block Abuja-Lokoja Road After Soldiers Arrest Colleague

Some truck drivers on Tuesday blocked the Abuja-Lokoja Expressway in the Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory over a disagreement with soldiers plying the route.

Our correspondent reports that the road was blocked around the popular SDP junction in the suburb.

A policewoman who spoke to THE WHISTLER on the condition of anonymity explained that the drivers blocked the road after the soldiers seized an auxiliary driver attached to one of their colleagues.

The officer said the soldiers were coming in a convoy with some Red Cross vehicles in tow and met the truck parked on the shoulder of the road.

“The soldiers were coming in the same direction as the truck driver and the driver now parked. He was not by the road and told his boy to buy something for him. Soldiers were coming behind him, they now asked him why he parked on the road and he said he didn’t park on the road, he only sent his boy to buy something. They now told him to come down from the truck. When he came down, they opened the car and went away with him. So, the truck drivers blocked the roads saying that unless they bring him back, they will keep blocking all the roads.”

One of the truck drivers, Saminu Musa, corroborated the policewoman while fielding questions from our correspondent.

Musa said, “What actually happened is that soldiers were coming as escorts for these Red Cross vehicles you’re seeing lined up. You see this place over here is a shoulder where people park. This was how they came down and took away one of the boys accompanying our fellow truck driver.”

He vowed that the drivers would not move their trucks from the road unless the soldiers release the boy they took away.

“In fact, if this had happened in the bush or anywhere out of town, this thing could have birthed a different story entirely today because these cars could have easily been bombed, it’s not a great deal doing that. We are tired of this discrimination in this country. The poor man seems to be nothing in this country! Just because they are conveying escorts, they now feel they can trample on us? This road belongs to no one, and if they so desire, let them have the government create their own way separately so that an ordinary poor man can have peace of mind. Just because you feel you’re something else I should give you a way, that’s not possible,” he said.