A
driver attached to the Cross River State Commissioner for Commerce and
Industry, Calistus Okune, was on Wednesday remanded in the Afokang Prison in
Calabar for assaulting two officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps.
Okune
was alleged to have acted on orders of his boss, Mr. Peter Egba, after the
Toyota Corolla that he was driving was impounded for several offences,
including driving without using seat belt and use of fake government number
plate.
The
incident was said to have happened in front of a magistrate, who presided over
cases of traffic offences, during a mobile court session facilitated by the
FRSC.
While
one of the affected FRSC officials was beaten up and had his uniforms torn by
the aggrieved driver, the other had a deep cut in his head.
One
of the assaulted FRSC officials, Fidelis Eteng, who spoke on the matter said
trouble started after he had impounded the vehicle for the offences.
According
to him, the commissioner rushed to the scene shortly after the vehicle was
impounded and in the course of argument, he (commissioner) gave an order to the
driver and others to “deal with” those responsible for the seizure.
He
said, “We stopped the vehicle first when we noticed that he (Okune) was driving
without using a seat belt. Later, we had to impound it on discovering that it
bore a fake government number plate. The driver also had no driving licence. We
immediately took the car to the mobile court arena where he was booked.
“Shortly
afterwards, the commissioner came and started ranting.
“He
said he was going to ensure that those involved would be sacked. It was while
the argument was on that he ordered Okune to assault me. The commissioner
himself later joined in the beating and also used stone to injure a colleague
in the head.”
Angered
by the disregard for judicial authority on duty, the sitting magistrate,
Dorothy Duke, ordered that the driver be remanded in Afokang Prison until
February 3, when the case would be heard.
Officials
at the state Ministry of Justice were said to be angered by the development as
the wife of the commissioner, who is a cousin to the magistrate, was said to
have appeared on the scene and also confronted the magistrate.
The
state Sector Commander, Mr. Ikechukwu Igwe, who condemned the action, said he
had notified the Ministry of Justice and the Commissioner of Police of the
development.
Igwe
also showed letters already written to the state
government over the flagrant use of fake government number plates on private
vehicles owned by top officials.
Egba,
however, denied giving order to his driver to assault any FRSC official.
“I
went to the scene immediately because my little boy was in the vehicle. I was
polite when I approached them; but before I knew it, they started pointing
their fingers into my eyes and it was at that point that my driver intervened
and a fight broke out. They actually tried to beat me up,” he said.
Source:The Punch
Tags
Society