It was a sad day for residents of Ugep, headquarters of Yakurr Local Government Area in Cross River State when One of the vans in a convoy of three Toyota Hilux belonging to Julius Berger Nigeria Plc killed two children on Sunday, May 25, 2014 waiting to cross the calabar-Ikom highway on their way back from church.
Solomon Okonta who witnessed the accident said the sad incident happened around 3.30pm on Sunday.
“The driver of the Hilux and his passenger, a white man, were beaten by some youths before the police arrived the scene.
“The police intervention led to the rescue of the foreigner from the youths who were bent on lynching him,” he said.
‘However, the driver was later taken to the police station, while the foreigner was taken to a church in the area for refuge, he added.
On recieving the reports of the accident, the Divisional Police Officer of Ugep division, whose name could not be confirmed,led his men to restore peace in the area.
The DPO was not happy happy with the facts that the youths in the area were bent on killing the driver and the foreigner if not for the timely intervention of the police.
“The problem we faced was how to rescue the white man. We had problem of lack of patrol van and none of the officers was ready to use their private vehicle to where angry youths were. So, it took us a while to disperse them,” he said.
Meanwhile the Public Relations Officer in charge of the Cross River State Police Command, Mr. Hogan Bassey, confirmed the incident and assured that the situation had been brought under control and investigation had commenced.
“We can confirm that the van killed two children and some youths wanted to lynch the occupants. We had brought the situation under control and investigation is ongoing,” he said.
