Despite the accounts of eyewitnesses and victims, the Anambra State Police Command has denied being the cause of an accident that happened on Friday along the Onitsha-Owerri expressway at Azia, Ihiala Local Government Area which claimed two lives and left 60 persons wounded.
Some Eyewitnesses had in videos recorded at the scene of the accident blamed bribe-seeking police checkpoints along the road for the accident.
But reacting to the development on Saturday, the state command’s spokesperson, DSP Toochukwu Ikenga, said the accusation is totally false.
Ikenga said in a statement in Awka that the police commissioner, CP Echeng Echeng, has commiserated with the families of the two persons who died and nine others who were injured in the accident.
He said contrary to claims that a police checkpoint along the express caused the accident, the Federal Road Safety Commission attributed the fatal crash to overspeeding and brake failure by a container-bearing trailer whose driver is one of the two persons that died in the unfortunate accident.
He said: “While the police indeed have a stop and search point close to the scene of the accident, it is wrong to blame the Police for the unfortunate incident.
“The fact that only six vehicles were on queue on a dual carriage way as busy as that Expressway is evidence that the Police has been responsible and sensitive to the plight of the motoring public, ensuring minimal delay as it conduct stop and search operations aimed at protecting not only Police facilities in the area from insurgents’ attacks but also the general public who are mostly at the receiving end of escapades by criminal elements.”
The command also commended the officers of the FRSC for promptly rising to the occasion and partnering with the police to get injured persons to the hospital and clearing the wreckage from the road to allow for free flow of traffic.
The command said drivers of container bearing trailers union were misinformed about the cause of the accident, leading them to mobilize heavy trucks to the scene on Thursday evening to block the highway.
He said: “The Nigeria Police wishes to appeal to the unionists to have a rethink in the interest of their fellow citizens and consider the plight of stranded travellers to remove the blockade from the highway. The Police will continue to explore peaceful means of resolving the imbroglio to prevent further loss of precious human lives.”
