Yaounde: Irate crowd barricade road as truck crushes biker, passenger fleeing municipal police agents.

It unfolded on the main road at the Etoudi neighbourhood in the Yaounde I Subdivision, Mfoundi Division of the Centre Region.

The protest followed the crushing to death of a bike rider and his passenger by a truck. The accident, eyewitnesses recounted, occurred while the bike rider attempted fleeing from Municipal Police agents. 

The bike rider, sources who witnessed the scene added, was pulled from the back by the council agent before they were crushed by an oncoming truck. 

Angry inhabitants of the neighbourhood stormed the road, barricaded it for hours while calling on municipal authorities of Yaounde I Council and other State authorities to call Municipal Police agents to order. 

“We are not happy with the powers that have been bestowed on this Municipal Police Agents,” regretted a Yaounde city dweller, adding that “enough is enough”. The angry Yaounde inhabitant, while yelling at council authorities, instead urged them to focus their energy on the hygiene and sanitation situation of the town, the poor road network and not bike riders struggling to make a living for themselves. 

“The municipal police who are supposed to control urban disorder, now think they are security officers so can do and undo. The whole incident could have been avoided if the agent could have let the bike rider go, take his badge number and open investigations,” said another inhabitant who rushed to the scene. 

Another city dweller blamed the incident on the refusal of the bike rider to give the agent some money. 

“This is not the first time we have seen such action. Recently, a Municipal Police worker died and people around blamed his death on bad money given to him by a young man whose bike the agent had seized and vowed to give him only after he would have paid to him 50,000 FCFA,” the same source added.

Security officers who rushed to have area are said to have restored calm and circulation.  

The corpse of the bike rider and the passenger are said to have been taken to the mortuary, pending identification by family members. Investigations are said to have been opened by officials to ascertain the exact cause of the incident.