Imported User:
A group of youths on Monday set ablaze, a vehicle belonging to the Nasarawa State command of the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC) to protest the circumstances surrounding the death of a 22-year-old man.
The incident occurred when officials of the FRSC, on a routine check along the Lafia-Jos road, impounded a car driven by one Saleh Audu-Wambai, the deceased, for failing to update his vehicle particulars.
Eyewitnesses said that Audu-Wambai was ran over and killed by an on-coming vehicle as he was struggling to stop officials of the FRSC from impounding his vehicle.
The incident, which occurred in front of the College of Agriculture, raised tension in the city as angry youths set ablaze a FRSC pick-up van parked at the gate of the Dalhatu Araf Specialists Hospital, Lafia.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that the deceased, who was a civil servant, was apprehended by the traffic officials.
They demanded for the vehicle particulars, which he gave them, after which he was told that some of the documents had expired.
After he failed to convince them to let him go, the deceased then took off, leaving the car behind with the officials, to solicit the assistance of his elder brother, one Audu Tanko, working at the NNPC Mega Station, Lafia.
On his return with his brother, Audu-Wambai discovered that the FRSC officials were attempting to drive away his car to their office.
A struggle ensued when the deceased, holding on to the car door, pleaded with them not to impound his car.
It was then, one of the officials, allegedly, shoved aside the late Audu-Wambai, who fell on the road and was instantly crushed by an oncoming vehicle.
Enraged by the incident, some youths, mostly commercial motorcycle riders, trailed the vehicle used to convey the dead body of the deceased to the specialist hospital.
Thereafter, they pushed the van outside the gates and set it on fire.
The FRSC officials, who sighted the irate mob coming to the hospital immediately, abandoned their vehicle and jumped over the fence to escape mob action.
Ibrahim Wadata, a relation of the deceased, who spoke with NAN, described Audu-Wambai’s death as most pathetic, considering that his elder brother died only a month ago.
Meanwhile, Mr Cornelius Ocholi , Police Public Relations Officer, (PPRO), Nasarawa State Police Command, confirmed the incident.
Ocholi said that a detachment of armed policemen had been deployed to beef up security in the offices of the FRSC in Lafia.
He said that the action was taken following information that youths, who have mobilised in numbers, were heading there to confront the officials over the death of their kinsman.
The police spokesman, however, said that normalcy had been restored in the area.
Ocholi, who described the incident as an accident, said no arrest had been made, but that investigations into the matter would soon commence.
Mr IsiakaYakubu, the Public Relations Officer of the corps, who also confirmed the incident, said that the officials involved were yet to file their report on the matter.
