Some officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps in Abuja yesterday assaulted the enforcement team of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB).
Witnesses said the altercation which started at about 11am grounded traffic around the FCT FRSC office in Wuse 7 and lasted for more than two hours.
An AEPB employee from the legal department, Esther Isaac, had gone to the FRSC office with some police officers to seal up the building after obtaining a court order for a six-count charge against the corps, when they were attacked.
She said the board had served the corps an abatement notice on December 12, 2017 to within 72 hours stop indiscriminate dumping of waste, burning of waste, blockage of drainage among other offenses.
Documents obtained by City News showed that the corps failed to comply with the abatement notice hence they were summoned to appear before a Magistrate Court in Wuse Zone 2 on February 18, 2018.
Their failure to show up during proceedings made the court issue an order for the premises to be sealed up.
“The premises of the accused/respondent: The Sector Commander FRSC Wuse Zone 7, Wuse 1, Abuja is to be temporarily sealed off pending when otherwise directed by court,” the order issued on February 26 and signed by Musa Ibrahim Jobbo, a senior magistrate read.
Isaac had gone to the premises for the enforcement when some of the FRSC officers assaulted her and the two police officers, and smashed the windscreen of an operational vehicle.
“About eight officers stood at the right side of the gate obstructing me from locking it up, I barely pushed the gate an inch before one of the officers slapped me,” Isaac said.
She said they collected three of the four chains with her and she was about leaving when they attacked her again.
“A female officer pushed me and I tripped before I got my balance. She then grabbed me by my hair from the back and they began slapping and kicking me,” she said.
The FRSC Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, confirmed that “there was a scuffle but we are resolving the matter at the moment,” when our reporter called him on phone.
