 |
| The Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of FRSC, Mr. Osita Chidoka |
The Federal Road Safety Corps has said it cannot apportion blame to anyone for the accident that claimed the life of a former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Festus Iyayi, last Tuesday. It said its officials were still conducting investigation into the crash.
The corps noted that it would not “run into conclusion without investigation,” as it would be prejudicial to do so when its officers were still at the crash site.
An Education Officer, Jonas Agwu, told Sunday on Friday in online interview.
Our correspondent had sought a clarification from Agwu in an email over the contradictory statements from the corps on the cause of the crash.
It had alleged that a wrongful overtaking by a vehicle in Kogi State Governor’s convoy caused the accident.
Agwu, who had indicated that he would respond to the questions immediately, did not do so until 24 hours later.
The state Sector Commander, FRSC, Olatunde Motajo, had told the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday that the accident was caused by a Toyota Hilux pick-up van in the governor’s convoy.
When questioned by our correspondent on Wednesday, he denied this and said the report of the investigation into the crash would be ready on Thursday morning.
However, when contacted again on Thursday, he recanted, saying the investigation had not been concluded and hurriedly terminated the phone call. Subsequent calls to his line were not picked.
The Staff Officer, Media Relations, Corps Public Education Office, Ohaeri Osondu, however, said it was not prosecuting drivers involved in fatal road crashes because it was the duty of the police.
There was a report on Saturday that the corps were shielding the driver who caused the accident that led to the death of Iyayi. But the corps denied shielding him. He said the corps were not hiding the report of its investigation into the crash.
“It is not true that the FRSC is unwilling to release the accident report because our accident investigation team is still on site and are still collating the facts. We cannot run into conclusion without investigating. As it stands, it would be prejudicial to apportion blame without proper investigation.
“It is based on recreating that event, looking at the tyres skid marks and looking at the position of the vehicles that we can come back to the true situation and this will be made public at the appropriate time,” the official said.
The corps said that it had been enforcing traffic rules and regulations without preference to any category of drivers, including convoy drivers. It stressed that there were no provisions in the traffic laws that exempted convoy drivers from prosecution.
He added, “As the leading agency on road safety management, we have initiated series of advocacies to address the traffic conduct of convoy drivers. Through our sustained engagement with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, the Federal Executive Council gave a mandate for the FRSC to organise mandatory training of convoy drivers since last year.”
He further said 700 drivers underwent the training and that the process was still ongoing.
The agency said it had also developed a category of driver’s license for convoy drivers to ensure that every convoy driver was trained for the special assignment.
No comments:
Post a Comment