The joy of many Lagos residents in the Abule-Egba axis of the state almost turned into sadness when a dare-devil youth created a scene in full glare of the public by leaping from the top of the new bridge to the ground, thirty minutes after Governor Akinwunmi Ambode opened it on Wednesday and left with his entourage at about 1:30 pm.
Sustained shouts of joy and praises for the governor for delivering on his promise to construct and open the bridge, named Jubilee, in less than a year, soon turned into shouts of ‘thief’, thief’ as the young boy immediately took to his heels after landing on the portion of the side road near Total petrol filling station.
Policemen who were still in their large numbers under and around the one kilometer long bridge to oversee things quickly arrested, handcuffed and threw the suspect into the back seat of a van with registration number BDG 632 EE.
The unruffled youth in squeezed white T-shirt and popcorn hair pleaded innocence, claiming that he was pushed from the bridge until some boys crowded around the van to point him out as a member of the gang that had started robbing people who stayed on the bridge in further celebration after the governor had left.
“He is a member of the group who were using broken bottles to force many of us to handover money or phone until someone raised the alarm” said a bearded man who gave his name as Afeez. “They are many, others fled immediately they saw him jumped from the bridge to escaped been mobbed”.
The suspect kept quiet, sat back into the seat in the van and dried his tears.
The police had to disperse the crowd that was gathering as more persons came up to add their version of the incident and then drove the van away with the nabbed suspect.
At the Ekoro road junction, one of the side roads connecting the new bridge, some youths quizzed and slapped two other teenagers suspected to be members of the gang until some elderly men begged to set them free.
