Police clarifies Benin-Sagamu accident
Monday, 08 March 2010 06:07 | 
Author: TransparencyNG | 
THE Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, has said that about 19 passengers of a Lagos-bound inter-state luxury bus Young Shall Grow, who were forced by some suspected armed robbers to lie face down during an attack on the bus on the Ijebu-Ode-Sagamu expressway on Friday, July 31, last year, were crushed to death by an on-coming Scania Truck marked XN 803 BEN, driven by one Osayinde Idahosa.
The police boss stated this in a press statement signed by the Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Emmanuel Ojukwu.
He stated that the victims who were crushed to death beyond recognition included 13 males and six females, out of the entire 41 passengers that boarded the ill-fated bus in Enugu State on the fateful day.
The clarification by the IGP, is, however, coming against the backdrop of last week’s demand by the Senate for a comprehensive probe of the unfortunate incident by its Committee on Police Affairs, following a perceived long silence on the accident by the police higher authorities since then.
It will be recalled that a national newspaper (not Tribune) had published an article on the incident, indicating that it occured early this year, after some gory photographs of the victims were posted on the internet by some concerned citizens, who wanted to call the attention of the Nigerian public to the needless carnages on the nation’s highways by some suspected men of the underworld, who frequently laid siege on the highways to dispossess innocent citizens of their valuables.
The release noted further that when the ill-fated luxury bus with registration number XF285AKD,whose driver was identified as Francis Okechukwu Okafor, got to the scene of the robbery attack somewhere between the Federal Government College, Odogbolu, and Babcock University , Ogun State, at between 9.30 and 10 p.m. on the fateful evening, the armed robbers forcefully stopped it and ordered all the passengers on board disembark alongside the driver and the bus conductor.
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|41.155.34.xxx |2010-03-08 12:22:08 Tunde - How wicked!Man has ceased to be man... man has become beast... (Nightfall In Soweto - Oswald Mtshali). This is wickedness of the highest order. I advise Policemen be more occupied with your job than with the collection of those illegal monies they collect from the bus drivers.It's nothing but blood money... if you don't repent now i tell those people who lost their lives everyday on Nigerian roads will witness against you on the day of judgement because of your negligence of duty. It is an opened secret that the Inspector General of Police has returns from this blood money. If he wishes to refute it, let him come out and do it publicly and convincingly too. Otherwise, i don't need to tell those corrupt officers that, those monies are like that the 30 pieces of silver collected by Judas Iscariot and there was found for him no place for repentance. This is sheer betrayal!
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|82.128.125.xxx |2010-03-08 14:28:17 DotunIf a Minister's son or a Governor's daughter was involved, it would have been reported, publicised and the government would have moved in with their usual fire brigade approach.
For how long will this continue?
I dont blame the Police, after all, a Police Chief once claimed that crime cannot be prevented but can only be curtailed.
May I say that Nigeria is the only country in the world where people dont die - but they get killed.
In this dawn of a new century, our citizens still die like fowls - unaccounted for.
Shame on the sloppy ones.
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So sad. Nigeria is a very sick country where armed robbers are more powerful than the police. The problem of armed robbery in Nigeria can be minimised if the police are given adequate training and better wages. We need intelligent people who are able to withstand proper education and training in order to improve on policing in Nigeria, not stacks of low-life illiterates that rely on bribery for survival. It is a shame that we tend to loose focus on issues like this. People are asking Nigerians in Diaspora to return home to a country where people's lives are not valued!!! We need to re-organise our police service, also to have an electorate register in order to adequately monitor people's whereabouts in Nigeria. This will not only help to determine people's needs but also to locate criminals. If the police are as powerful in Nigeria as the army, we will all experience better quality of lives in Nigeria.
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|41.206.15.xxx |2010-03-09 02:53:40 Dexter - So sad...
it is quite unfortunate. sometimes I wish I wasn't a Nigerian cos there's nothing to be proud of about this country. The Nigerian police is more concerned with collecting N20 from motorist by the use of threat. They point their guns at you with such recklessness that makes you feel pretty uneasy cos they lack adequate training and could fire at you (accidental discharge). I have personally lost a friend like this and I know exactly how it feels. There isn't a better way to describe what armed robbery means cos thats exactly what the Nigerian police does. Obtaining money with arms ,to me ,is armed robbery. It is not strange either to find Police robbing houses and motorists on our high-ways at ungodly hours of the nite. May God help us...
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THOSE THAT STUDIED "CRIMINOLOGY" END UP TO BECOME CRIMINALS THEMSELVES. THE MEN OF THE UNDER WORLD HAVE THE BACKING OF THE POLICE TO PERPETRATE THE KILLING WHY WOULDN'T THEY PAINT THE ACT.
IT IS A PITY THAT NIGERIA AS A NATION IS SO LAWLESS SUCH THAT ANYONE CAN PERPETRATE ANY EVIL WITHOUT BEEN CHECKMATED. HOW CAN NIGERIANS IN DIASPORA THEN RETURN HOME IN THE LIGHT OF THIS? WHEN THEY HAVE NO MONEY, WORK ETC. THEY AT LEAST HAVE PEACE OF MIND AND SECURITY OF LIFE AND PROPERTY IN THEIR PLACES OF ABODE. MAKE LIFE MEANINGFUL FOR PEOPLE AT HOME.
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|77.99.12.xxx |2010-03-15 18:08:50 Taiwo - Who says its not the Police?its saddening that these people they call police often turns to armed robber while on duty,it has happened to people before,few miles to Ore,the same Mopol at the checking point turned on people and robbbed,raped and killed some of the passengers.so where do we go from here?what the inspector said is rubbish and it does not clarify a single thing.
The scenario is possible but needs further proof. It just does not convince me.