Family Demands Justice After Bus Conductor Allegedly Kills Mum Over N20 Fare

The aggrieved family and friends of a 52-year-old woman allegedly killed by a bus conductor in Benin last week over N20 transport fare have staged a peaceful protest to appeal to the Police to fish out and prosecute the driver and conductor of the bus.

According to Punch, her relatives staged the protest accompanied by sympathisers and residents from Efehi Street, in Oredo Local Government Area of the state on Friday, lamenting the delay in police investigation on the matter.

The late mother, Mrs. Helen Ero, had boarded a bus from New Benin to Uselu and had offered to pay for two other women on the bus. A heated argument was said to have ensued between the bus conductor and the deceased over the collection of N20 bus fare. The conductor was said to have later ordered the woman out of the vehicle, which led to a confrontation between the two, as he tried to forced her out.

She was said to have slumped, when the conductor suddenly hit her with a wheel spanner and died before she could get any medical attention.

According the family, her body was later dumped on a walkway, beside Eghosa Grammar School.

Her eldest daughter, Maris Ogbevuon, told Southern City News that the mother of nine and the family’s bread winner had been feared missing on Saturday. She said she discovered her remains on a walkway around Okhoro junction, after she got a call from a woman, suspected to be one of the passengers on the bus.

She also noted that the deceased was found almost naked, with all her jewellery taken away.

“On Saturday evening, my mother told me to take some items to my younger ones at Ekosodin and tell them that she was coming home. At about 7:30pm, she passed through my shop. Two hours later, someone called to say that she could not find my mother. We searched several hospitals that day but did not find her. On Sunday morning, I heard some people talking about a dead woman on the road and when I got, there I saw her lying dead with only her underwear. Her body was cold when I touched it.

I want justice; I want the police to look for the bus driver and the conductor. Please, we need help; her children need help. I do not know who did this to my mother and took her away from us. I have no father and mother. She told me that she was coming and that was the last time I heard from her,” she said, as she wept bitterly.

A brother-in-law to the deceased, Henry Ero, also urged the leadership of the state Drivers Welfare Scheme to aid police investigations by identifying the driver and bus conductor.

Police Public Relations Officer, AbiodunOsifo, maintaining that investigation on the incident was ongoing, urged the family to remain calm. He said:

“You are aware that the police is already investing this case and the two ladies who witnessed the incident are also assisting the police to identify the culprits.

But it is unfortunate that the ladies did not do much. What we expected from them was to take the registration number of that vehicle. The time it took them to have gone to three hospitals was enough for them to have called the police.

But they delayed and, instead called the husband of the late woman at home. The period they were calling the husband would have been enough for them to have beckoned on any police vehicle on patrol and that action would have been enough to track down the culprits before they escaped.

But not withstanding, we are going to fish them out, God willing, and also relying on information from members of the public. The drivers union are also challenged to assist the police.”