Offa garage accident: How KWARTMA’s  Negligence Led To Victim’s Death- EyeWitness 

By  Fatai Ahmed

The Kwara State Road Traffic Management Authority (KWARTMA) has been blamed for their alleged negligence and delay which led to the loss of victim’s life in recent accident involving a truck at Offa garage area of Ilorin.

According to an eyewitness who spoke to National Pilot,Adebayo Jacob, KWARTMA only showed up two hours after receiving a distress call from one its officers on ground at the scene of the accident where a truck carrying livestock feed had fallen over after losing control due to a brake failure, trapping a person under it.

It was said that the crowd at the scene of the incident became enraged and started attacking the KWARTMA officers whose alleged delay they believed led to the death of the victim trapped under the truck.

Jacob said, “The accident occurred at around 12:45pm in which a truck carrying livestock feed had a brake malfunction and lost control. The action got a person trapped under the truck and Kwartma personnel posted at Offa Garage quickly called their office.

“To our greatest surprise, their towing van showed up over two hours after the incident.

By the time they arrived, the trapped person had died which resulted in those that gathered to start attacking the KWARTMA personnels, We had to hide some of them in some shop where they had to quickly changed their clothes.” He said.

According to one of the Officers on ground who spoke on condition of anonymity denied the alleged late arrival of KWARTMA at the accident scene. He said the crowd turned on them immediately they got to the scene of the accident and they had to run for their dear lives to avoid being lynched by the irate crowd.

“ We didn’t get there late, the people just want to use us as scapegoat, they started attacking us almost immediately we got to scene, we had to run for our dear lives.

The officer also revealed that they have had similar experience in recent times when the officers were almost lynched as they were also accused of being late to the scene of an accident.

“Similar incident occurred at Sango on September 9th 2023 in which two lives were lost when we couldn’t arrive early enough at the scene because we couldn’t get the diesel on time by the time we arrived, the crowd descended on us. Infact some of our Officers were seriously beaten and injured,” the officer said.

Another staff of the Authority who also spoke on the condition of anonymity blamed the incident and overall sub-par performance of KWARTMA on the alleged high-handedness and mismanagement of the acting Chief Executive Officer of the Authority, CRTO.Abdulhakeem Adegboye.

According to the officer, “Apart from the fact that we are not adequately funded, our CEO has been mismanaging the little resources we have, he always avoid spending money on relevant things such as fueling the vehicle.

“He complains that there is no provision for fueling so the usual practice is that whenever vehicles break down on the road, we will negotiate for a pay with the driver or owner of the vehicle which includes the cost of fuel for the towing vehicle.

“We have reported the situation on several times but nothing was being done and the man always punish those that are bold enough to speak out”, the officer said.

He stressed that challenges facing the agency in recent times such as unavailability of logistics to get to scene of accident which has resulted in many deaths has fractured Authority’s relationship with the public.

The Officer also blame the AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq-led administration of Kwara for its alleged failure to cater for the needs Authority.

“This present administration has not been making adequate provision for our operations, unlike the previous ones. The towing vehicles are not being maintained unlike what we had during the past administration.

“There use to be a fund from the office of the Deputy governor that is used for that purpose but we no longer have that, the vehicles are now in bad shape, the tires are almost worn out”, said the officer, adding that the staff of KWARTMA are demoralized due to lack of welfare and promotion.

“Since 2010 that I was employed with my OND certificate ,there hasn’t been any promotion whatsoever, we have been stuck at the same level for well over a decade and we are being given promises upon promises but nothing has materialized yet.”

However while speaking to National Pilot, the spokesperson of KWARTMA, Ganiyu Olawuyi dispelled the allegation of late coming leveled against the authority, noting that their operatives got to the scene of the accident within 30 minutes of receiving the distress call.

He said, “it is gross misinformation from some people that we got to scene of the accident two hours after we received the call, our officers got there within 30 minute of the receipt of the call”

“The vehicle we use is a big one, unlike other cars, we have to first of all pump the break before we move, the people were only panicking due to the situation the victim was in ,I hope the people are more understanding.” he said.

While reacting to the alleged mismanagement of resources being perpetuated by the Chief Executive Officer of the Authority, Olawuyi described the report as mere rumour being spread by some disgruntled Officers of the Authority.

He said, “That is not true, it is a mere rumour from the hands of some disgruntled officers who were displeased by the changes in their placements due to leadership change in our Office but they need to understand that change is inevitable.

“The truth of the matter is that there is no point in time whereby we we failed to get where we need to be because of unavailability of fuel because we have doing our work well in other places, our boss is doing his best.” Olawuyi says.

The spokesperson also reacted to the issue of lack of promotion of the officers of the Authority over the years, noting that the leadership of KWARTMA had made several efforts to speak to the State Government but hasn’t been getting response.

He said, “in respect to that issue of promotion, our boss has written several letters to the government but we are still awaiting desirable response from them, we have done our part,only the State government have the power to determine our fate.”