27th March, 2012
Residents of Umuahia on Monday witnessed a bizarre show when a commuter bus driver pulled off his clothes and jumped out of his vehicle naked.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the incident occurred at the entrance gate to Aro Motor Park on the busy Aba Road in Umuahia about 3 p.m. on Monday.
The driver put on the show when police tried to impound his bus.
Some eyewitnesses said that the driver of the white-paint Mitsubishi bus with Akwa Ibom number, XA152KTM, was heading to Aba after loading at Isi Gate axis of Umuahia.
It was at that point a police pick-up van marked Abia State Police Command Robot 01 flagged the bus down.
A passenger in the bus, who pleaded anonymity, told NAN that he was surprised to see the driver pull off his clothes the moment the police vehicle with heavily armed policemen overtook them.“I never knew that I entered a bus driven by a semi-madman. For the young man to pull off his dress just because police want to arrest him is to say the least, very unbelievable,” he said.
A secondary school student sighted at the scene, who also did not want his name mentioned, described the act as callous and advised the police to take the driver to hospital for relevant tests.
A newspaper vendor, who gave his name as Dan, told NAN that a similar incident took place on the same place about six days ago.“This is fast becoming the practice by bus drivers any time they are arrested by the police in Umuahia. They quickly pull off their dress and go naked.
“About six days ago, a similar thing happened here and people all gathered to watch the man and police until police abandoned him,” he said.
Dan urged government to ensure that appropriate steps were taken to discourage the behaviour in Abia.
NAN reports that the police team returned the key of the vehicle to the conductor, while the driver later joined them.