Truck drivers protest colleague’s death in Ogun, blame TRACE

Truck drivers in Ogun State, on Tuesday, stormed the Ibara Housing Estate office of the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement (TRACE) Corps to protest the death of a colleague.

Ottagistreel learnt that the angry protesters invaded the office of the traffic agency, vandalising things.

The protesting truck drivers had alleged that the colleague, a ‘motorboy,’ had fallen off a truck while being chased by operatives of TRACE; saying he was crushed to death by another vehicle coming behind.

According to them, the TRACE officials were responsible for the death of the ‘motorboy’ and many other unreported casualties.

One of the truck drivers, who simply identified himself as Soji, said, “the TRACE officials stopped the truck; they have earlier mandated a compulsory payment of N100,000 by all trucks in the state. They were chasing the truck for no reason and caused the boy to fall off.”

One of the protesters, who did not mention his name, said, “That is how the TRACE operatives do, they will stop our trucks for no reason. When you stop for them, you will be charged unnecessarily. That is why we don’t wait. Sometimes they don’t care, they will drag ‘motorboys’ and we get wounded in the process.”

Reacting, the Ogun TRACE Corps said that the dead ‘motorboy’ was crushed by a fellow truck driver.

Debunking all allegations, TRACE Spokesman, Babatunde Akinbiyi, revealed that the truck which the ‘motorboy’ boarded was arrested for flouting the Federal Government’s 10pm to 4am curfew by the task force consisting of the police, TRACE and other agencies.

He accused the truck drivers of kidnapping a TRACE official, saying that was why the vehicle was chased.

In his words, Akinbiyi disclosed that the task force was not aware of when or how the boy fell from the truck, adding that the deceased was run over by another truck while trying to escape arrest, having violated the curfew order as well.

Speaking on the protest, Akinbiyi disclosed that, “We got signals that they were going to cause violence. They barricaded Ajebo, they came here too and destroyed virtually everything here. All they are saying are lies. The police are already investigating because the police are also involved. It’s a task force issue.