FRSC personnel in hot mess over assault on journalist in FCT

FILE PHOTO: FRSC officials fight driver in motion, vandalise car.

Personnel of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), FCT Sector Command, on Wednesday brutalised a Defence Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr Johnson Eyiangho, at the command`s office in Zone 7, Abuja.

The officers beat up Eyiangho at about 11: 15 a.m. when he was assigned to cover the fracas between the FRSC personnel and officials of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) who had gone there to seal the corps’ premises for noncompliance with environmental laws.

An argument ensued between personnel of the corps and the AEPB officials which suddenly degenerated to a free for all.

Eyiangho said that as he alighted from the NAN official vehicle that conveyed him and the agency`s photographer to the scene of the incident, some FRSC personnel descended on him and beat him thoroughly.

READ: NYSC blacklists Osun school over attack on corps members

“The FRSC operatives also tore my shirt, inflicted bruises and deep cuts on my left leg, and summarily seized and destroyed my cell phone and voice recorder,” he said.

He also said that the personnel of the corps did not spare any journalist who came to cover the incident.

“I have never received such a beating in my life; every personnel of the corps at the scene of the incident was raining punches on me and `shouting take him away’.

“I was detained for several hours under inhuman condition in one of the corps’ offices after the thorough beating.

“One of the personnel, believed to be the Provost, supervised the beating and ordered that no one should allow me to go.

“He personally seized my identification card, a voice recorder and a cell phone,” he said.

The Public Education Officer of the corps, Mr Bisi Kazeem, instructed that Mr Eyiangho be taken to the FRSC hospital in Gwarinpa for treatment.

Kazeem also promised that the matter would be investigated for appropriate action.

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2 Comments

Zolo b says:

March 14, 2018 at 11:34 pm

I want to use this opportunity to beg Baba Buhari to please look into the Federal Road Safety Corps. He should please intervene and stop the suffering of the staff. The present administration is really killing the staff. Ask a staff of FRSC his monthly salary, he won’t give you a specific figure because they don’t have, their salaries are never stable. Some time ago staff were told about a housing scheme which they subscribed to, so many started contributing towards it, only for them to collect staff money and they were not given the house and money was not refunded. It is a shame that during the last election in Anambra, the FRSC boss went to the state to collect money the state government provided for staff, only for staff to be giving 500 Naira only. Just in February here, staff were transferred from their commands to different commands without any transfer allowance of any kind. For a long time now they have been doing transfers without paying transfer allowances. For a very long time, staff have not seen any thing like incentives during any of the festive periods. If other organizations can motivate their staff with items or monetary incentives. The staff are really going through a lot in the hand of this administration.

Uche says:

March 14, 2018 at 11:24 pm

This is total madness. How can AEPA conceive such an idea to seal FRSC premises. Can they seal Army premises for non compliance without exhausting other options.