How reckless police escort crushed teacher’s legs

MRS. Onome Akporode, 31, a teacher at Victress School, Aladja, Udu Local Council, Delta State, would be haunted forever by the unfortunate circumstance that suddenly changed her life.

Her legs were crushed by a lorry, which was frantically trying to avoid a bullion van escorted by a police vehicle that was taking cash to the Udu Road branch of First Bank. The bullion van and the policemen were moving at top-speed on the wrong lane.

On July 13, 2015, Mrs. Akporode went to the Udu Road branch of the First Bank of Nigeria Plc, to lodge some money into an account with the said bank. She left the bank and crossed the first lane on the Udu major road in front of the bank. While waiting on the pavement on the middle of the road to safely cross to the other lane of the road, suddenly, a bullion van and escorts manned by men of the Nigeria Police Force and hired by the bank, allegedly drove recklessly against the traffic in an attempt to enter the bank.

An oncoming 911 Mercedes Lorry that was on its lane, in a bid to avoid colliding with the bullion van and police escorts, rammed into the pavement on the road and the teacher, thereby shattering her two legs and damaging the pavement.

After the accident, some good Nigerians who witnessed the accident rushed her to the Central Hospital, Warri, where she was referred the next day to the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara and at present placed on admission at the Intensive Care Unit of the Teaching Hospital.

Her left leg, which was severely crushed in the accident, was subsequently amputated by doctors at the Teaching Hospital same day in a bid to save her life, while the doctors are still contemplating on amputating her right leg for her to survive.
The Guardian learnt that despite the severity of the accident, neither the owners of the lorry nor officials of First Bank and the police have shown any concern. This development has angered her husband, Mr. Michael Akporode, who has borne all the expenses incurred in the process of saving his wife’s life. It was gathered that he has spent over N500,000 for the medical treatment of his wife since the July 13 when the accident occurred, till date.

However, the Delta State Police Commissioner, Mr. Alkali Usman, said last Monday that the policemen escorting the bullion van, which caused the accident had been arrested and that the matter was being investigated.

But a human rights group, Centre for the Vulnerable and Underprivileged (CENTREP), who raised the alarm over the incident and drew the attention of concerned authorities, called for a thorough investigation of the matter.

The National Coordinator of CENTREP, Ikimi Oghenejabor, a lawyer, tasked the Police High Command to execute a thorough and independent investigation into the complaints of the victim and her husband, in order to prosecute the erring culprits who caused the grievous bodily harm to Mrs. Akporode whom, he said, was at present under severe pains and hardship.