Lagos – A reckless police driver behind the wheels of a van attached to the FESTAC police station has been accused of hitting a woman and her baby, causing brain damage in the nursing mother.
Several sources related to the woman told news men that the accident happened on June 23, 2013 as the police driver sped dangerously against the flow of traffic on a one-way lane along the busy Oshodi-Apapa Road, hitting down the unsuspecting woman and her baby.
“The accident was avoidable, and could have been avoided if the police man obeyed simple traffic regulation that marked the road as one-way,” said a relative of the injured woman. “Now, the action of this [police] man has resulted in serious brain injury to the mother.”
The source revealed that the accident happened at Church bus stop along the Oshodi-Apapa express road. An eyewitness said the victim, Taskirat Anjolaiya, was alighting from a public bus with her child and had not noticed the furious police van coming from the wrong traffic direction towards her.
One of the victim’s relatives disclosed that the driver of the police van, identified as Corporal Friday, told their family that he was driving his boss’s mistress to the airport, apparently to catch a flight, and had to maneuver through traffic to get his passenger quickly to her destination. An eyewitness said the police corporal seemed to act with drunken disregard for other road users. “As he was driving, he was waving his hand and shouting at drivers who were driving the right way to clear out of the road,” the witness told news men. “He kept driving that way until he eventually knocked down the woman coming out of the bus with her baby.”
Family sources said the badly injured woman and her baby were rushed to the emergency ward at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). Doctors reportedly discovered that she had sustained a pelvic fracture, facial bruises, and brain injury. The baby, Ammarah Anjolaiya, also suffered deep facial cuts and a broken jaw.
A family source said Corporal Friday’s first concern at the scene of the accident was to immediately arrange a cab to convey the “madam” in his car to her destination. He later provided the injured woman’s family with N70,000 for treatment. The source said the culprit subsequently abandoned the victims of his reckless driving at the hospital. “We have so far spent above N500,000 on treatment and upkeep,” said the source.
Another family source told news men that the victim’s husband, Sulaiman Anjolaiya, had been unemployed for several months. “His wife was the bread winner of the family and now she is down with mental and physical injuries due to the behavior of this police corporal who has now abandoned them to the fate he inflicted on the family,” she said.
Our sources disclosed that the family of the victim had a shocking experience when they visited the FESTAC divisional police station to meet with the Divisional Police Officer, Ibrahim Zango, whose mistress was being taken to the airport at the time of the accident. “DPO Zango spoke to us in a very rude manner before offering us additional ten thousand naira,” said one of the victim’s relatives. He added that the DPO said the woman being driven by the reckless police driver was “just a relative.” Mrs. Taskirat Anjolaiya is currently receiving treatment at LUTH for her physical and mental injuries.
Reckless Drive: Police Van Crushed Nursing Mother And Child
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