Angry Young People Block Kaduna-Abuja Highway as FRSC, Police Abandoned Accident Victims
BY OBUTE JAMES
Angry young people numbering over 200 on Sunday blocked Kaduna-Abuja Highway to protest against what they called nonchalant and unconcerned attitude of the operatives of Federal Road Safety Corps and the Nigerian Police toward the accident victims at Jere, Kagarko LGA, Kaduna State.
The accident occured when a fourteen-seater Toyota bus with registration number, KMC 681 ZQ heading toward Kaduna crashed into an articulated trailer which had broken down at the middle of the road.
Our correspondent who visited the accident scene observed that the faulty trailer was parked on the fast lane of the express road without any sign indicating that a vehicle had broken down on the road.
Our correspondent counted 10 bodies covered with leaves on the ground before the arrival of the soldiers who pleaded for calm.
Some of the protesters told The Legislatureng.com that they decided to block the Abuja-Kaduna road in order to prevail on the security operatives to evacuate the dead bodies retrieved from the bus to the mortuary.
They lamented that after over 3 hours that the accident happened and distress calls made to to FRSC and Police there was no presence of any of government security opreatives forcing them to block the road in order to show their displeasure toward unconcerned behaviour of those saddled with the responsibility of protecting lives and property.
They revealed that a woman with a little child did not die immediately after the accident but later died at the scene of the accident when there was no assitance. The little child also reportely died.
The Abuja.Kaduna Road connects people to the entire states in North West Geo-political Zone and some states in the North East, particularly Borno and Yobe States.
The situation was brought under control when the soldiers came to the scene of the accident and evacuted all the dead bodies to a nearby hospital.
It was also learnt that the men of FRSC who were ealier stationed their vehicle at Kateri stopping vehicles for various offences, later ‘disappered’ when the impact of the hold-up was extending to them.
Kateri is a next town to Jere but there was no presence of the FRSC at the place until soldiers evacuted the dead bodies while drivers, passengers and some of the young men who blocked the road pushed the wreckage of the bus to the shoulder of the road.
