The Udensi Roundabout, few poles to Ebonyi State Government House, Abakaliki, was on Thursday, May 21st, 2020, thrown into a state of total chaos, when policemen and armed soldiers clashed over alleged traffic rule violation by the latter.

The fracas erupted when some police traffic wardens impounded a tricycle, whose operator violated traffic light signals.

An eyewitness, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, explained that when the rider’s efforts to secure the tricycle’s release failed, he called the owner, who was a soldier.

Our source narrated that some minutes later, the soldier arrived with another tricycle and demanded to see the traffic police wardens who seized his tricycle.

That quickly degraded to a fierce fight, as the wardens allegedly engaged the soldiers, resulting to a detachment of soldiers on guard at the International Conference Centre, Abakaliki, to rush to the scene and join the fight.

While the matter was being settled inside ICC, a detachment of mobile policemen and operatives of anti-robbery squad arrived the scene and charged at the soldiers.

The soldiers, however, responded by cocking their riffles, while also making calls for reinforcement from their base.

It took the intervention of senior police officers from the Ebonyi State Police Headquarters, Abakaliki, to calm the situation and avoid what would have been a major security scare and bloodshed, as reinforcement from an army base arrived the scene minutes later.

When contacted, the Ebonyi State Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Loveth Odah, said it was an internal matter that should have been settled by the appropriate authorities.

The PPRO confirmed that the incident ended with no casualty.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.