The Women Arise for Change Initiative has strongly condemned the attack on some officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps by police personnel attached to the Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly.
It will be recalled that the mobile policemen in the convoy of Abia State House of Assembly Speaker, Hon. Chikwendu Kalu, over the weekend shot officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps on duty in the State when they stopped an SUV in which the wife of the Speaker was traveling in because they were not putting on seat belts.
The policemen also went the extra mile by vandalising the patrol vehicle of the FRSC, after leaving the two men shot, before other road users helped them to the hospital.
The Women Arise said it sees this assault on the harmless officers of the FRSC as an escalation of attacks targeting personnel in the course of their legitimate duty.
The Convener of the group, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, said: “This latest incident, can also be linked with the quest by some power-drunk politicians to continually use the instrumentality of Police protection, provided to them by the Nigerian State, to build up intimidating arsenal against innocent Nigerians.
“We hereby call for an immediate arrest and prosecution of all the Policemen involved and the wife of the Speaker who was with the team as at the time of the attacks as well the Speaker who was alleged to have sent reinforcement in this condemnable action.
We shall remain committed to this demand, until justice is seen to be done, not only for the sake of those innocent FRSC Officers, but also in defense of other innocent Nigerians, who have daily become object of attacks by politicians, and police personnel attached to them.
“We also sympathise with the affected officers, while wishing them quick recovery.”
I do not in anyway supprt the shootings of the FRSC officers. The time have come for FRSC workers to try and avoid confrontations because many times it has become a recurring thing that they target private vehicle owners because we have not seen them stop trailers or heavy duty vehicles. Private car owners do not have good experiences with the men of the Organization and many have sworn not to stop for these men anytime they are stopped on the road because these officers are more out to bring in revenue than actually the road safety work they are supposed to. If you stop a vehicle and tell them they did not use seat belt, tell them to do that for their safety but many times the overzealousness of booking and revenue generation have made the officers to always throw caution to the wind.
It is pathetic because in recent times I have watched a video of a staff of FRSC in d car of a man they wanted to possibly impound the vehicle and in the long run there was the smashing of window or possibly windscreen. In my own opinion they should not take their duties too far. What does a FRSC staff got to do in d vehicle of a man at the back seat behind the driver and their hilux truck in pursuit and knowing fully well she was been recorded.
Let FRSC staffs watch the way they carry out their duties.