It was a tale of monumental suffering as travellers languished along Kaduna-Zaria expressway for over 15 hours after angry trailer drivers blocked the road to protest the alleged shooting of one of their colleagues by a soldier. The road was finally opened at about 1:20 this afternoon.

Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Governor Nasiru El-Rufai, Samuel Aruwan, told journalists that Deputy Governor Bala Bantex and the Commissioner of Police, Umar Shehu Ambursa, went to the scene and reopened the road.

“Government has responded quickly to the matter and the situation is under control now. While we appeal for calm, we are also appealing to the public to avoid taking law into their hands. Contrary to speculations, the victim of the shooting is still alive and is currently receiving treatment at the hospital as we speak,” Aruwan said.

The trailer drivers blocked the road after an open-body trailer driver was shot by a soldier at a military check point at the dismantled Toll Gate near Tudun Wadan Dankande in Igabi Local Government of the state.

Salisu Babayo, a commercial driver, alleged that the soldier shot at the open-body trailer driver around 11pm for refusing to give the soldier N200. “The trailer driver insisted on giving them N100, which they declined and opened fire on him around 11:00 p.m. Sunday night. The bullet cut him on his leg,” he said.

Continuing, Babayo said: “That soldiers at that check point have for long been extorting N200 from drivers. Sometimes they will also ask passengers who do not have National Identity Card to drop N200 and go. So, we are used to their action, what is strange is why they had to shoot a driver who gave them N100.”

Some sections of the road soon became converted into an emergency abattoir where cows and sheep were off-loaded from trailers and slaughtered.

“We have no option than to slaughter these animals because of hunger and fatigue,” some of the drivers said.

•Photo shows traffic gridlock on a Nigerian expressroad arising from the activities of truck drivers.

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