Over eight persons yesterday escaped death but suffered various degrees of injuries from machete cuts as members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, branch 2, clashed at Federal Housing Authority FHA Bus stop at Lugbe, Abuja.
Eyewitnesses said the fight ensued among the union members, following alleged encroachment of Lugbe bus stop branch by the Branch 2 team from Pyakasa, a community along Yar’Adua express way.
But for the intervention of Zone 5 and 8 Lugbe police stations, led by Superintendent Elisha Lafet, which quelled the crises that lasted over 15 minutes, the situation would have degenerated.
Vanguard gathered that loyalists of Pyakasa and Jabi Park leadership were engaged in fierce argument over who should control the park.
The Branch 2 members were said to have come to collect union fees from the drivers operating from Lugbe to the city centre, an action that infuriated the NURTW employees at FHA bus stop at Lugbe.
The eyewitness account said “members of the union suddenly started bringing out cutlasses and macheting people; they use to operate at Pyakasa and want to come and start to operate at FHA.”
Another witness told Vanguard: “If the chairman of Pyakasa had not dodged the cutlass aimed on his head, he would have been a dead man.”
The witnesses, however, commended the swift intervention of Lafet and his men who came and brought the situation under control as they took both leaders off the scene and dispersed the other loyalists from further mayhem on the people at the bus stop.
When contacted to comment on the matter, Superintendent Lafet declined comment.
