Officials of Federal Roads Safety Corps in Sokoto came under attack Monday at the scene of an accident for which onlookers blamed the officials.
Some drivers at the scene had threatened to burn a road safety patrol vehicle.
“Other drivers that came carried heavy sticks and were beating our men, one of our men was taken to the hospital,” said zonal commanding officer Mary Wakawa.
The drivers accused an official threw stones into a moving vehicle along Western Bye-pass in Sokoto leading to an accident that resulted in the injury of some occupants of the vehicles.
The command has refuted the allegations.
Wakawa said its men were on patrol at the byepass attending to an offender as other vehicles passed.
“This particular driver that was carrying nine passengers in a vehicle meant for five. On approaching the patrol team informed his passengers that he was not going to stop for Road Safety.
Wakawa said the driver sped up and sped past the patrol.
“But because the speed was much, the other vehicles in front of him were not on that kind of speed, he had to meander between them. He dodged one, in the attempt to dodge the second one, he hit the pavement and that was what caused the accident.”
She added that some of these passengers confessed that it was the FRSC officials that came first that were able to rescue them and move them from the vehicle.
“The patrol car was at the other side of the divide and they asked the driver to bring the vehicle so that they can take the victims to the hospital, on the way, a motorcycle rider blocked the patrol vehicle and started shouting that they were the ones that caused the accident,” she stated
The Zonal commanding officer however said during investigation, the passengers confessed in the presence of the police, the National Union of Road Transport Workers, the passengers themselves and FRSC officers, that the driver did not stop ,there was no stone and that the accident was never in any way involved the patrol team.
She added the driver who had earlier claimed that stone was thrown at him later confessed that he never stopped for road safety and that FRSC was not involved in the accident of his vehicle.
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