Governor of Ebonyi State, Mr. David Umahi, has denied involvement in a motor accident which claimed the life of a lone driver on the Kubwa expressway in Abuja on Tuesday.
The motorist identified as Mukaila Inakakana, reportedly skidded off an Abuja flyover bridge on Tuesday as he was jolted by the governor’s convoy, which happened to be driving on the same expressway.
According to eyewitnesses, Inakakana’s vehicle, a Mercedes-Benz with registration number YAB 91 EW, fell into a ditch from the flyover bridge near Setraco before the NNPC substation on the Kubwa Expressway and no vehicle among the convoy stopped after the accident.
The Gwarinpa Police Station’s Divisional Police Officer, Chief Superintendent Hayatu Shafa, said the driver was jolted by the convoy’s siren and veered off the flyover bridge into a ditch, adding that the motorist was trying to avoid the convoy.
The motorist was said to have survived the incident with severe injuries and was rushed by sympathizers to the Maitama General Hospital, which in turn referred him to the National Hospital.
He was, however, pronounced dead on Wednesday at the Hospital’s Trauma Centre.
Reacting to reports of the accident, the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr Emma Anya, in a statement on Thursday, said it was unfortunate that Umahi’s convoy was being linked to the crash.
Anya in the press statement said: “No vehicle in the convoy obstructed traffic on the said road much less causing the said accident”.
The statement noted that “for clarity purposes, the said crash took place some metres away from the governor’s convoy.
“A police account of the accident according to the newspaper, stated that the vehicle skidded off a bridge and fell into a ditch.
“It should, however, be known that our convoy linked the Kubwa highway from Katampe through an intersection almost under the bridge”, it read.
According to the statement, the governor denied that a protocol officer attached to his office, spoke with a national daily as it should mention such officer if it insists.
“The governor is, however, saddened that the vehicle’s occupant, Mallam Mukaila Inakakana died as a result of the accident”, it stated.
