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Just in: NURTW thugs brutalise mini bus drivers in Delta

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By Anita Godfrey

Alleged thugs of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW/EMPLOYEES) Udu branch, on Sunday, brutalized several mini bus drivers over resistance to pay an increased daily ticket of N600.

The incident occurred at Ugbolokposo junction in Effurun, Delta State on noonday.

It was gathered that several mini buses were destroyed with many drivers sustaining various degrees of injuries as the attackers descended on them with dangerous weapons including cutlasses, iron bars and bottles.

One of the injured drivers, Alfred Wilson who spoke to newsmen from a hospital bed said he narrowly escaped being lynched by the hoodlums parading as members of NURTW.

Wilson narrated “We use to pay N400 daily but it was recently increased without any notice to N500, just today they have increased it to N600 for the minibus.

“We felt aggrieved and decided to get a lawyer to challenge the undue hardship placed on us in court. We were mobilizing our drivers so we can meet and plan when they came to attack us.

“The Vice Chairman, Joseph led the attack, immediately they got to Ugbolokposo junction where we parked, they started injuring anyone at sight, we were running when they planked me and stabbed me with a bottle in my face.

“They tried bundling me to Udu after attacking me and I was bleeding, it took the efforts of my colleagues who came to my rescue to save me. My vehicle was damaged too.”

Corroborating, another brutalized driver, Prince Ojike said the suffering of drivers had gotten to a peak. “We cannot tolerate it again. I was also attacked and assaulted, they were over ten in numbers with weapons.”

Also, Ikuku Godwin, another assaulted driver confirmed the attack. He stated, “We were surprised when they came to attack us because we were only planning to meet and it was not even in the Udu area.

“They intended to injure us and destroy our vehicles for daring to plan to meet. We need the government to intervene in this issue because it is causing so much hardship on us.”

Meantime, the matter had been reported at the Ebrumede Police Divisional headquarters.

The effort to get the Delta State Police Command’s spokesman, DSP Bright Edafe proved abortive as he did not respond to the call put across to him at the time of filing this report.

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