A hit-and-run taxi driver on Wednesday knocked down an old man at Isale-Ake, near Cathedral Diocese of Saint Peter, in Abeokuta South Local Government Area, Ogun State.

Eyewitnesses’ accounts said that the man was hit in the middle of the road by the speeding vehicle while trying to cross over to the other side of the road.

A witness, Lukmon Babatunde, a member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Ake branch, explained that immediately the taxi driver hit the man, he alighted from his vehicle as if to help the man, but later sped off.

Babatunde said that he and some good Samaritans went to carry the old man away from the middle of the road and laid him at the side of the road so that incoming vehicles would not run over him.

“We were sitting here and we heard how the taxi hit the old man, and we thought the driver would park and save the old man, but he sped off. We would have taken him to the hospital, but we feared.

“It took the efforts of me and some people to carry him from the middle of the road so that other vehicles would not run over his body”, he said.

Another witness, identified as Adedoja Hassan, said that the windscreen of the taxi got broken immediately the driver hit the old man and ran away.

She said that the incident occurred two hours ago and was surprised that the victim was still breathing.

“The old man was knocked down by the taxi, and the taxi driver waited a bit, and when he thought the man was not breathing, he sped off. People would have taken him to the hospital, but they were afraid the man might give up while helping him,” she noted.

Both witnesses stated that people would have helped the victim to the hospital because the incident occurred very close to Ọba Ademola Hospital, Ake.

However, when contacted, spokesperson of the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE), Babatunde Akinbiyi, said he had yet to confirm the incident.

“I don’t have any information about that”, he said.

The Guardian observed that the old man was still breathing at the time of filing this report and learnt that the Abeokuta council authority had been contacted to send an ambulance to take the victim to the hospital.