Who Killed Biggy?

On Tuesday, May 6, 2025, my peace was rattled by a very sad, shocking and tragic chat from a friend and a brother. Boss, Biggy, was knocked down Monday evening without a scratch but unfortunately had severe head trauma. On arrival at a hospital, he was declared clinically dead but was still on life support. Sadly, he died on Thursday, May 8, 2025.

I was too speechless to interrogate the tragedy. Where did it happen? How did it happen? I know most of us do not take the look left, look right and look left again tit bits contained in the Revised Highway Code when crossing the road. Who was driving and where is the driver? Did he stop to help or bolt like it has become the story with such incidents.

My memory immediately flashed to a similar tragedy that befell a newly graduated female medical doctor; brainy and beautiful. Riyana (not real name) was knocked down by a hit-and-run driver who like the case of Biggy, never stopped to assist in saving her life. He zoomed off and unlike what happens in developed climes, no one was quick enough to capture the erring driver to assist the authorities.
Biggy’s and Riyana’s (not real name) deaths are just a few hit-and-run cases recorded. There are unaccountable cases that underscore the need for the appropriate infrastructures and technology to aid and ease the efforts and strategies of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to unleash the full provisions of its enabling Act in prosecuting such culprits.

Are you aware of the provision of the FRSC (Establishment) Act, 2017? Have you ever gone through the document, especially Sections 20 and 21 of the Act, even though I know that a handful of drivers do not see the need to internalise the contents of the Highway Code, which is your encyclopaedia for safe driving. How much more an enabling Act.

Specifically, Section 20 says that, ‘A person who drives a motor vehicle on a highway dangerously or recklessly (such as the ones who killed Biggy and Riyana) shall be guilty of an offence and be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years’’. If you need more information, please kindly grab a copy of the Establishment Act for your guidance as a deterrent.
This provision which emphasises prosecution, jail, punishment, or better still real consequence, if you do not mind, came to my mind when I saw the tragedy in Agege, Lagos State which I focused on last week as well as the recent case of Biggy.

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Please, I will not bore you with the details but what I wish to reiterate is that the incident, especially in Lagos and Abuja are not the first. There have been several cases not just in Lagos but across other parts of the country. I do not have the exact number of trucks that have lost control and fallen over bridges in Lagos within the last one year or more. Neither do I have for other parts of the country. Similarly, I don’t have for hit-and-run cases.

These accidents including the most recent highlight several issues including the mechanical state of the vehicles, traffic infractions and prosecution, which is my emphasis today among other issues. They raise issues bordering on the absence of barriers at bridges, speed infractions, trading under bridges, bus stops under or close to bridges, mental, emotional and psychological state of drivers.

My focus is on giving real bite to the provisions cited above. What has been the fate of those behind other crashes? Were they jailed or got away with a slap on the wrist? What will be the fate of the killer of Biggy? And the next killer? This fear prompted me some years ago to do a piece titled, “Time to tame killer drivers”.

That piece started thus; On Saturday, December 23, 2023, I was startled by a WhatsApp chat from a colleague. The chat was not the usual compliments and prayers that have become the norm during festivities such as the Christmas and Sallah seasons. Rather, it was the harbinger of other tragedies.
It was what we call first information and indeed it messed up my whole day. The chat was about a fatal crash, which occurred along the Majia-Malamawa Road near Gujungu in Jigawa State. It involved two cars. The probable cause was speed violation and loss of control. Ten people died in that multiple crash two days to Christmas.

While I was pondering on this tragedy, my Christmas was soiled by the news from far away Ikirun, Osun State. Unlike the first crash, this was a lone crash that killed nine people. Speed and loss of control were equally the probable causes in addition to fatigue. The vehicle was a Mitsubishi Canter.
Before these two crashes, we had recorded other crashes prior to our End-of-Year patrols to curb fatalities. Most of the crashes occurred on the Abuja-Kaduna, Kano-Zaria, Kotangora, just to mention a few and claimed many lives with several degrees of injuries sustained.

It has been over two years since I did the piece in response to the spate of crashes and deaths including hit-and-run cases. I am compelled by these deaths to use it again. I do hope you will enjoy the reading which was woven around Manchester United. With all sense of humility, I have nothing against Manchester United, nor against Chris Kehinde Nwandu, who is my brother from a mother I am yet to meet. However, I really cannot stand being called a ‘REDs’ even though their football was admirable until lately but I truly fear being tagged a ‘Devils fan’.

Before I bore you and I lose my readers who are supporters of the REDs, let me pause and inform you that this focus is not about Manchester United who have been wobbling since the start of the current season unlike my darling Arsenal. It is neither about Arsenal who have discovered their rhythm.
It is first about the fate of one of the REDs’ defenders in the Premiership, Harry Maguire, the captain of Manchester United following his trial on the Greek Island in 2020. I read that the 27-year-old was released from Police custody following his arrest on the island of Mykonos due to an alleged altercation with police officers. I also read that he was not obliged to be in attendance which I must confess tripped me.

Mag, as I fondly call him when he shows up on the pitch with his superlative performance, pleaded not guilty. According to media reports, Mag did not comment after leaving court. The report further said that “three foreigners were arrested after an alleged altercation with police officers in Mykonos. The other two defendants were Maguire’s brother, Joe, 28, and a family friend, Christopher Sharman, 29. Maguire’s father Alan, I read, was at the court hearing.

According to media reports, the accusations against the three included “violence against officials, disobedience, bodily harm, insult and attempted bribery of an official.” Greek police said that the officers had tried to break up an altercation between two groups outside a bar and that the three foreigners had then verbally abused and assaulted one of the officers.

After arriving at Mykonos police station, the three arrested individuals “strongly resisted, pushing and hitting three police officers” while “one of the detainees tried to offer money so that the trial against them would not be completed,” it further said.

Maguire is perhaps the fourth premiership footballer whose travails have formed part of my focus on this page. I have severally x-rayed the plight of some celebrities, especially footballers who daily indulge in flouting traffic rules after too much clubbing and drinking. Maguire’s case has nothing to do with flouting traffic rules in the United Kingdom. It is a matter that took place while he was holidaying on the Greek Island.

What I find intriguing, as stated earlier, is the flexibility of the court proceedings despite claims by the Police. The flexibility brings to my mind the cases of traffic offenders, especially drivers responsible for deaths on our roads. Observers, including my friend Martins, have wondered why it is difficult to convict a killer driver in Nigeria.