The wife of a trader based in Calabar, Cross Rive state, allegedly murdered last Friday in by enforcement operatives of the Department of Public Transportation (DOPT), Mrs Mary Michael Eyo Essien, has cried out for help.
Operatives of the department allegedly manhandled the trader identified as Michael in an attempt to enforce the ban on roadside trading.
The team’s vehicle was said to have ran over the trade, Eyo Essien, who died at the spot.
This is even as the Cross River State House of Assembly has set up a 7-man committee to unravel the remote and immediate causes of Essien’s death.
In an interview with Blueprint Weekend, Friday in Calabar, Mrs Essien said no government officials had visited the family since the unfortunate death of her husband.
“Ever since my husband was killed last Friday no government official has visited me; they have neglected and abandoned me and my four little children.
“My husband was a little over thirty years. We got married in Lagos state in 2007, we have four children, all boys, and I am with four months pregnancy now.
“I was at home when my husband’s sister came to our house and told me that my husband had been crushed to death by DOPT vehicle. The sister said they beat my husband mercilessly and his goods were packed into their vehicle.
“My husband’s sister said she begged them, my husband also begged them and those in the market pleaded with them too but they ignored them.
“My husband told them that he uses the proceeds from the goods to look after his children and that he pays his house rent with the same proceed, takes care of his four children and even his pregnant wife. Despite the plea, they impounded his goods and he continued to beg. The driver of the DOPT now drove the vehicle close to him, crushed him to death and zoomed off.
Meanwhile, Blueprint Weekend information has it that the House of Assembly had resolved to pay a condolence visit to the family of the deceased, and appealed to traders in the state, especially those at Watt Market where the incident happened, to remain calm and allow the law to take its course.
