Leadership (Abuja)
Abdulmumin S. Balogun
12 November 2009
Abuja — Two victims of a road accident, Muhammed Gambo and Yusuf Buhari, have cried out over the use of the name of the Inspector-General of police, Mr Ogbonna Onovo, to intimidate them from being treated fairly.
The accident, which happened on October 19, 2009 about 10 kilometres from Gboko in Benue State, according to the duo, was not their fault but the continous mention of the name of the IGP as the man behind Pilgrims International Ltd - the company whose car they claimed hit them, by a staff of that company became a cause for concern when it became obvious that the IGP's name was being used as a tool of coercion.
"We were driving our car, a Toyota Sienna with registration number BD 224 GWA, on a two-lane road which was full of potholes. We slowed down to avoid potholes, while still on our lane, when suddenly a Ford Ranger jeep with registration number BR 503 AKD left its lane and headed for us. It was a head-on collision, which badly damaged our vehicle. Thankfully, none of us was seriously injured.
"The occupants of the other vehicle, who were under the supervision of an expatriate, Alexander Hopter, from Nokia-Siemens, came out, assessed the damage to their own car, and used their two-way radio to call their colleagues to the accident scene. They started to quarrel with the officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission, who rushed to give us a hand. In fact, they nearly beat up the FRSC staff and a policeman."
The victim, Muhammed Gambo, said the occupants of the other car called one of their superior officers, Odudu John, to the scene. Odudu signed the police report. Before then Gambo and his co-travellers had established that the car belonged to Pilgrims International Ltd.
Odudu agreed that the accident was caused by their driver and that they would repair or replace the Toyota Sienna. We agreed to meet the following Tuesday. On that day, after we met, Odudu refused to sign any agreement committing his company to repair or replace the car.
Instead, he requested for an estimate of the cost of repairs of the car and refused to take the responsibility of towing the car for repairs at a dealership workshop in Abuja - that was even after we offered to pay for the towing and be refunded afterwards. They did not consider that it was out of place for us to estimate the cost of repairs in Gboko."
Yusuf Buhari, one of the occupants of the Toyota Sienna involved in the accident, told our reporter that he asked for assistance from Governor Gabriel Suswam through a friend when it was obvious that they would be physically attacked by those who rammed into their vehicle.
"The governor sent one of his aides, Prince Yandiv, to the scene of the accident. Prince helped us to arrange for a towing van, which towed both cars to the police station after the occupants of the vehicle which ran into us abandoned us and the cars, and left in the cars their colleagues came in on the excuse that they had a job to complete for Etisalat.
"They definitely would have manhandled us, from the way they kept harassing us, if not for the fact that the villagers and a government official were there with us.
The boys also intimidated the policemen, a deputy traffic officer in the state and FRSC officials who were there with us on a rescue mission, while their white boss, Alex Hopter, looked on in obvious approval. Odudu John, who claims to be in charge of all their company vehicles within the region, kept saying the Inspector-General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo, was behind their company."
LEADERSHIP talked to John on telephone. He laughed when asked if it was true that he claimed the IGP was behind Pilgrims International Ltd but collected our reporter's telephone number and name of media house, promising that the appropriate person would talk to him. As at the time of going to press there was no call from Pilgrims International Ltd.
The foreign security company works in the Niger Delta and other parts of Nigeria but our sources say the office they claim to operate from at Adeola Hopewell Street in Lagos cannot be traced.
When contacted, the Divisional Traffic Officer, Mr. Patrick Yunisha, confirmed the accident, stating that two vehicles were still in police custody. According to him, the matter would have been charged to court since the parties involved have not been able to settle their differences, pointing out that judicial workers in the state were on strike.
Yunisha explained that the driver of the Pilgrims vehicle had been released on bail to the vice chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state. He would, however, not state if the inspector-general was mentioned in connection with the incident.
Emmanuel Kulmum of the Federal Road Safety Commission , who was at the scene, also confirmed the accident but would also not state if Onovo was behind the Pilgrims International Ltd.
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