‘Everything happened because of N100 bribe’

Nine feared dead in Ogun multiple auto-crash
NO fewer than nine people were feared dead and four others injured in a multiple auto-crash that occurred yesterday, at the old toll gate, on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Sango, Ogun State.It was a multiple-accident involving 16 vehicles.

The first one happened at 1.00a.m. with eight vehicles involved, while the other crash, which
occurred at the same location around 6.00a.m., also involved eight vehicles.

The first crash was allegedly caused by a Sinotruk loaded with Lafarge cements, which had brake failure and rammed into other vehicles, plunging two of them into the stream.
Eyewitness accounts revealed that the casualty figure would have been minimal, but for the excesses of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) officials, who were forcefully extorting money from motorists.

It was learnt that one of the affected vehicles, a white Ford bus conveying yam from Sepeteri, Oyo State to Alagbado in Lagos, that was stopped by the police, rammed into another during the first accident, killing one of the two occupants.
It was gathered that the second accident occurred a few hours after as a result of the impact of the first accident that was yet to be cleared and caused by brake failure, too.

A survivor, Mrs. Latifat Olukogun, pointed accusing fingers at the RRS officials. She claimed that the truck rammed into them because of the policemen’s insistence on taking N200 instead of the N100 offered them.

She noted that the police Hilux bus also plunged into the stream with two of them injured, adding that they had hurriedly removed their vehicle
“Everything that happened was because of
N100. My partner, Iya Nimota, whose daughter will be getting married next Sunday, died in the process, just because of N100.”
The Unit Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Ota, Assistant Corps Commander, Leye Adegboyega, told The Guardian that only five people died and four others were injured, including a RRS official.

He noted that his team immediately proceeded to the scene of the crash for rescue operations but “we had to quickly leave the scene and went back to the base as the commercial drivers and miscreants at the toll gate went on rampage, damaging all on coming articulated vehicles, mostly trucks and trailers, as they saw the lifeless bodies of their colleagues.
“We contacted the Area Commander, Sango and he mobilised seven police teams to maintain peace and order for the rescue operations to take place under my watch and other police officials.”

While noting that four injured men had been conveyed to General Hospital, Ota, out of which one later died, he said the dead bodies were evacuated and deposited at the morgue, thus bringing the death to five.
The FRSC boss disclosed that the sum of N54,970, four mobile phones, a bunch of keys and a purse were recovered from three of the victims.