Members of the Federal Executive Council met on Wednesday. As ministers and other council chambers were arriving ahead of the 10am commencement time, I sighted the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Commission, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi, arriving the venue.
My instinct told me that his presence must be connected to the death of the Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Mr. James Ocholi (SAN), his wife and his son in an auto crash near Rijana Village on the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway on Sunday. Could he have been summoned to come and say what he knows about the accident? My thoughts ran wild and I was determined to get to the root of it.
But not long after that, the reason for his presence was made public. Yes, I did not get it wrong. His presence was related to the death of the Ocholis. His mission was to formally present the interim report of the investigation his commission conducted on the accident to President Muhammadu Buhari and other council members.
When the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, invited Oyeyemi to make the presentation, I thought the FRSC boss would only hand over the document to Buhari and thereafter take a bow and go, like they say in the Senate.
The presentation was however more elaborate. It turned out that he had prepared very well for it. It was a power point presentation that was projected on the large screen in the chambers and the smaller screens on the table of each council member.
I could not believe that the FRSC would make such a detailed report available within 72 hours of the accident. The report analysed and identified all the vehicles in the convoy of the minister at the time of the accident, the number of people involved, the number of those who died, those who sustained injuries and those who escaped unhurt.
So detailed was the report that Oyeyemi and his men who investigated the case did an x-ray of the crashed vehicle’s tyres and discovered that although not yet expired, the tyres were not properly fixed.
“The four tyres of the vehicle were from Dunlop with the following information inscripted on each side walls: DOT 0615 EUJD, 285/60R20. This indicates that the tyres were manufactured on week six (6) year 2015 while the tyre size is 285/60 radial 20. From this information, the investigation team was able to deduce that the tyres had not expired…The DOT number of the tyres were inward which cannot easily be read from outside. This indicates that the orientations of the tyres were not properly fixed which could adversely affect the performance of the tyres,” the report read.
Investigators also discovered that the driver of the crashed vehicle is not duly registered as a driver in Nigeria. They also found out that the convoy was not equipped with communication equipment. They identified those who wore seat belts at the time of the crash and those who did not.
They gave attention to smaller details such as the fact that there was a small pothole close to the scene of the accident. They were however quick to say that the pothole did not cause the crash. “Although there exists a pothole at the crash vicinity, its existence and the roadway condition were not contributory factors though it lacked speed limit, informative signs and speed surveillance cameras to caution and deter speeding motorists,” they submitted.
They also did not hesitate to apportion blames. Ocholi’s driver, James Elegbede, got more than his fair share of the punches. Apart from allegedly driving without a valid driving licence, he was also accused of driving with excessive speed. The probable cause of the accident, according to the investigators, was “the driver’s failure to maintain directional control of his vehicle when the rear left tyre burst occurred. Contributing to the loss of control were the speed of the operation and hard application of brake.”
The investigators did not also spare the dead. “Severity of the fatality was increased due to the ejection of the minister and his son as a result of non use of rear seat belt,” they wrote.
To make the driver’s case worse, the Federal Government has said that it may prosecute Elegbede once the final report is made available.
My concern in all these however is the fact that the FRSC did its job with the speed of light apparently because of the social status of the man involved. Is this how FRSC conducts investigation into all accidents that occur in Nigeria? After the Sunday crash, how many accidents have occurred on our roads? How many of them were thoroughly probed like this? I am of the opinion that if this is how the commission probes all or most of the auto crashes recorded in Nigeria, cases of accidents would have been reduced drastically even if they cannot be totally eradicated.
….when Buhari, Osinbajo, others mourn
The administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan had many special FEC sessions to pay tribute to some prominent Nigerians who died at the time. For instance, it held one for former Minister of Information, Prof. Dora Akunyili.
On Wednesday, the first of such tribute session was held under Buhari. It was for Ocholi. The ministers arrived on time to bid their colleague farewell.
I expected to see them in black clothes or black bands to depict the mood. Only a handful of them found this necessary though. But they tried as much as possible not to engage in the usual back-slapping that always precede their meetings.
Buhari set the tone for the session when, shortly after the opening prayers were said, he asked that a minute silence be observed in honour of the deceased. He then opened the tribute session by recalling the late minister’s contribution to the merger process that gave birth to the ruling All Progressives Congress. He particularly commended Ocholi for his humility which he said explained why he, despite being a SAN, accepted to work under a junior lawyer during the merger process.
At the conclusion of the President’s tribute, Adesina read Ocholi’s biography while his different photographs were beamed on the huge screen and smaller screens on the tables of the ministers. Some ministers fought back tears, they however did not weep openly. Oyeyemi, was thereafter called to present the FRSC interim report of the crash.
After Oyeyemi’s presentation, six ministers, one from each geo-political zone, were allowed to speak on the deceased. The first to talk was the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, who described Ocholi’s death as a colossal tragedy. “What we have at hand today concerning late Ocholi, his wife and son is a colossal tragedy of unimaginable proportions,” he said. He even spoke a few words in Igbo to express his grief.
Other ministers who spoke included the Minister of State, Health, Osagie Ehanire; Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh; Minister of State, Niger Delta, Claudius Daramola; Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu; and the Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Khadija Bukar Abba.
Like they say, life continues. Politicians will soon be jostling to take over the position Ocholi vacated in the cabinet, that is if they have not started already!
PUNCH
END
Be the first to comment