Protesting Taxi Drivers Shut Down Abuja

Olawale Ajimotokan

Commercial activities were at a standstill in Abuja, the nation’s capital yesterday, after taxi drivers protested the rumoured killing of a driver allegedly by a soldier attached to the FCTA Task Team, at the Wuse Market.

By yesterday evening, The FCT Police Command spokesman, DSP Anjuguri J. Manzah issued a statement assuring members of the Public “that normalcy has been restored at Wuse and its environs following a misunderstanding that broke out between operatives of the Directorate of Road Transport Services (VIO) Taskforce and cab operators close to Wuse market.”

Reacting, the FCTA Task Team in its statement made available to THISDAY denied that there was a casualty in the efforts of an FCTA Task Team to restore sanity on Abuja roads and environs yesterday.

The protest started in the early hours of the day before it spread to other parts of the city.

The rioters blocked the Herbert Macauley Road that links the market to high-end Garki district.

The lockdown left many motorists and commuters stranded as movement to many parts of the city became restricted.

The market, which also two months ago, witnessed a violent clash between traders and a civil society group led by show business mogul, Charly ‘Boy’ Oputa, over the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari from the country for a medical holiday, was shut down by armed police officers in a bid to thwart the situation from degenerating.

They also removed the various barricades the protesters put on the road from Wuse market, through Sky Memorial all the way to Berger Bus stop.

Eyewitness accounts attributed the protest to the shooting of a painted taxi driver at the market in the morning by a soldier attached to the task force.