LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – A Lagos bus driver, Emeka Sunday, has been arraigned at the Yaba Magistrate’s Court, Lagos for stabbing his passenger, Michael Ajibola, to death with a broken bottle during an argument over transport fare.
According to The Punch, Sunday was conveying Ajibola and other passengers from Sango Ota to their destinations in Oshodi but on getting to the Airport Road bus stop, he told the remaining passengers to alight from his vehicle promising to pay their fare as soon as they get another bus to convey them to Oshodi.
The situation, however, changed when the driver offered the passengers N100 balance to board a bus from the Airport Road to Oshodi after collecting N500 for the cost to transport them, including Ajibola.
The passengers reportedly refused Sunday’s offer, indicating that the journey from the point they alighted to Oshodi would cost more than N100.
The situation led to an argument between the accused and his passengers, numbering five, and in the process, the driver got into a fight with Ajibola.
Sunday reached for a bottle, broke it and allegedly used it to stab Ajibola, who fell to the ground and got soaked in a pool of his blood.
Ajibola reportedly died due to the injuries he sustained during the attack.
The rest of the passengers who witnessed the incident, apprehended the driver and surrendered him to the Shogunle Police Station.
The Lagos State Police Command arraigned Sunday before Magistrate O.Y Adefope, on one count of murder.
The prosecutor, Haruna Magaji, told the court that the offence committed was punishable under Section 233 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2015.
The charge read: “That you, Emeka Sunday, on January 30, 2023, around 8.30 pm along Oshodi Expressway, Airport bus stop, Ikeja, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did unlawfully kill Michael Ajibola by stabbing him with a broken bottle and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 233 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2015.”
The defendant’s plea was not accepted.
Magaji ordered that the defendant be held at the Kirikiri Correctional Center.
In anticipation of legal counsel from the DPP, Magistrate Adefope ruled that the defendant should remain in custody.
