A GRIEVING family has accused a Nigerian minister of lying over the circumstances of a car crash last week in which a newly-wed couple were killed – and leaving the pregnant young woman to die by the roadside.
The family of Victor (28) and Naomi (29) Umoren, killed along with their driver in the December 26 car crash on a beachside road near Lagos, say the minister for Africa, Dapo Sarumi, is using the police to cover up evidence over who was to blame in the accident.
Sarumi, who was unscathed in the accident, immediately blamed the young couple and their driver for the crash but their family disputes his version. And they accuse Sarumi of leaving the young woman, who was three months pregnant, to die by the roadside while he took two of his aides to hospital.
Wigwe said the police had shown uncharacteristic zeal in clearing up evidence from the scene of the crash on the road between Lagos and the nearby town of Epe.
“The way the police acted is not Nigerian,” Wigwe said. “They moved the cars off immediately. One witness told us that as soon as the accident happened, Sarumi … called all the police commands around the area to give certain instructions. The police have been very busy but there is a limit to what you can cover up.?
The dead woman’s cousin, Emeka Wigwe, said there was a concerted effort to remove evidence which showed that it was one of the minister’s escort cars which slewed across the road at high speed into the couple’s car after colliding with the minister’s speeding vehicle.
The cousin said photographers who tried to take pictures of the scene were beaten by police and he accused the officials of attempting to bribe reporters to drop the story.
The fact that the family’s version of events – contradicting that of the minister – was made public is unusual and has embarrassed the government.
Sarumi is the third cabinet-level minister in a year to be involved in an accident in which other people died.
Olusegun Adeniyi of the newspaper This Day said the incident got to the heart of the problem of how leaders in Nigeria treat ordinary citizens.
“It depicts glaringly the irresponsibility to which governance has been reduced in this country by little minds who glory in vanity,” he said. – AFP