The Ekiti State Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, has issued a disclaimer, saying a traffic offender, Adeola Alabi, arrested by Governor Ayodele Fayose on Thursday, was not its staff.
We had earlier reported that Mr. Alabi, identified as an FRSC official, was accosted and arrested by security operatives in the governor’s convoy on Mr. Fayose’s order for taking a wrong lane while trying to avoid a bad portion of the road in Ikere-Ekiti.
Despite the traffic offender’s pleas, Governor Fayose ordered that his vehicle, a Peugeot 505 Saloon car, be seized and taken to the office of the Ekiti State Traffic Management Agency in Ado Ekiti, with a directive that Alabi be booked for all applicable fines.
Reacting to the reports, the Ekiti Command of the FRSC said on Saturday that its records showed Mr. Alabi was not its payroll.
“The Ekiti Command of FRSC, through the Sector Commander, Ekiti State Command, Mr Stanley Chinedum, wishes to appreciate His Excellency Governor Ayodele Fayose for accosting and eventually arresting a road traffic offender on 15th October, 2015 along Ikere Road Ado Ekiti”, the statement said.
“We want to place on record, that the (traffic) offender arrested by the Executive Governor of Ekiti state, His Excellency, Ayodele Fayose, the said Mr Adeola Alabi, is not a staff of Federal Road Safety Commission”.
The statement explained that Mr. Alabi could be an impostor or a dismissed operative who was still using the commission’s sticker.
“We wish to place on record that the said traffic offender, from all available records, is not a staff of FRSC as a regular marshal or a volunteer special marshal.
“The said offender could be an impersonator or rather a dismissed special marshal who is still using old sticker of special marshals.
“FRSC is noted for discipline and exemplary behavior with adequate machinery to check excesses and abuses. We therefore always inculcate in staff at all times the necessity to obey all traffic rules while on official duties and even on private engagements”, the statement explained.
Also reacting to the matter, the Head of Media Relations and Strategy at the FRSC headquarters, Abuja, Bisi Kazeem, said on hearing the report , the Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, a disciplinarian, who he said has zero tolerance for indiscipline, ordered an investigation.
“To our surprise, it was found out that the said traffic offender was not in the service of the corps either as a regular or special marshal.
“Nevertheless, he was full of praises for the Governor for arresting a traffic offender and appeal to other senior government officials to emulate this rare deed as Road safety is everybody’s business”.
