Hell was let loose, in the Abakpa area of Enugu Wednesday, when a
policeman slapped a soldier.
The result was a violent clash between aren’t and police which left many
injured.
Trouble started when the soldier who was not in uniform approached a
police man to ascertain why he was passing motorists in a particular
lane leaving motorists in two other lanes.
This he complained was causing heavy traffic log jam.
Not knowing that he was a soldier the policeman replied by raining dirty
slaps on the soldier.
As expected the soldier put a call to his colleagues who trooped to the
scene, near the Abakpa market in a truck.
As soon as they alighted from the vehicle that conveyed them they went
straight to the police man and started beating him which attracted other
police men close by.
Many civilians who ran for their lives got injured while some police men
also sustained injury as a result of the fight.
Our reporter who witnessed the incident tried to interview one of the
police men who declined to grant interview.
However, a trader,who gave his name as Jude Nnaji described the incident
as most unfortunate and called on the authorities of army and police to
always caution their men to restrain from violence of any kind.
He obsedrved that this kind of incident could have been avoided if
security operatives are usually polite while dealing with people
irrespective of class, profession, religion and ethnic leaning.
A call to the police public relations officer was unsuccessful as he
was not reachable to react to the incident.