By Valerie Oyibo-Itie
SAPELE/Nigeria: It was a black Tuesday for the family of a hustling Keke driver that slumped and died after being attacked by two passengers on a day before at Oton Area of Sapele.
It was gathered that the Keke driver carried two boys on Monday evening on charter to Oton Village in Sapele, and on getting to an isolated spot, the passengers descended on him and tried to steal the Keke.
In the process, they used wood to hit him all over his body, especially on his chest but he managed to escape with the key to the Keke.
The Keke driver identified as Jite, on getting home told the story to his friends but did not tell his family and felt there was no need to go for checkup in case there was internal bleeding.
He could not go back for Keke driving business that day because it was already dark and did not report the case to the police.
The next day he pleaded with his friends to go with him to the spot of attack to retrieve his Keke, which they did as his assailant could not steal the Keke because he ran away with the key.
It was after he got home with the Keke, thanked his friends that followed him that he settled down to clean up.
An eye witness said he came out of his house to brush his teeth and slumped. All efforts to revive him proved abortive. He was reported dead on arrival at the hospital he was rushed to.
Mr Jite was about 24 years old and lived at Yoruba Road Extension in Sapele.
The incident brought fear to Keke drivers in town as they wondered how to avert such similar incidents.
Speaking with Mr. Tomore, at Olympia roundabout ( A Keke driver), on the incident said: ”It is only God that will save them in times like this because it is very difficult to identify bad elements in the society as most of them dress very well that you can hardly imagine they are capable of doing evil.”
Mr. Atare, another Keke driver, said that he had stopped driving at night as a precaution against incidents like this, that his closing time for some time now had been 6.30pm.
Atare said that he had noticed that such incidents were hardly carried out during the day.
Mr. Egrude, a neighbor of the deceased, said: “Jite never thought much of the beating he received from the assailants the day before hence he did not bother to go for checkup, more so, he was still talking, moving, eating etc and felt all was well, not knowing that it is possible that there might be internal bleeding that could lead to death.”
Egrude advised that the incident should teach all not to ignore routine checkups, especially after attacks like the case of Jite.
