Suspected thugs have attacked Egor Local government Council Secretariat in Edo State after violent broke out over N100 Council’s daily levy for commercial buses.
It was learnt that armed thugs acted at the behest of angry motorists whose vehicles were impounded by a team of Council revenue enforcers outside the Secretariat.
The disagreement was caused by the failure of commercial vehicle drivers to remit N100.00 daily levy to the Council officials, thereby heightening tension in the area.
Chairman of Egor Local government Council, Eghe Ogbemudia said four suspects have been arrested by security operatives in connection with Friday afternoon invasion of the Council.
She alleged that Government and private vehicles and properties were destroyed during the incident when some Council workers got a close shave with death.
The quartet was apprehended by local vigilante and handed over to operatives of the Nigeria Police at Textile Mill Road Division in Egor Local government Council area.
According to her, “Some shuttle and bus drivers often do not want to pay N100 ticket, which is the cause of this problem. I think this is getting out of hand. What is N100?”.
Ogbemudia said, “I was with some Vigilante enforcing Egor Clean up exercise when they called me that some youths have damaged our Council Secretariat.
“They told me that our Revenue Staff at Uselu, Egor Local government headquarters on Friday morning had argument with a shuttle driver over N100.00 ticket.
“The driver refused to pay the N100.00. Suddenly, the driver came down and gave the Revenue man blows on his face. Glasses on the vehicle injured him, according to what they told me.
“The injured Revenue man raised the alarm and sent for backup from the Council and got the driver arrested. When they arrived the scene, the driver, the injured Council official and the shuttle were brought to the Secretariat.
“They said a DSS officer who was present attempted to settle the crisis by reprimanding the driver of the vehicle.
“He mandated him to treat the injured man and replace the broken glasses before his vehicle would be released to him. And the driver agreed to pay for the damages and apologized.
The Council boss alleged that “after about 3-4 hours, the driver left the Council without his impounded vehicle, some youths invaded the Council Secretariat and began to destroy government properties and vehicles.
“We arrested four of them and handed them over to police for investigation and prosecution”, the Council boss said.
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