L.A.S MEDIA HOUSE

Friday 19 September 2014

BRT vandalism: Army prays tribunal to recall witnesses

The Nigeria Army's legal team, led by Lt.-Col.
Hycinth Ande, yesterday prayed the panel of
inquiry into the July 4 road traffic accident at
Palmgrove Busstop, along Ikorodu Road,
Lagos that led to the vandalisation of some
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to grant it permission
to recall three witnesses who had earlier
testified before it.

The witnesses include Razak Mustapha,
Ikechukwu Umeaku and Dapo Adediran,
employees of Mutual Model Transport Limited,
suboperator of the LAGBUS.
It would be recalled that the witnesses had
earlier testified before the panel chaired by
retired Justice Ebenezer Adebajo which was
set up by the Lagos State Government aimed
at investigating the July 4 incident and
subsequent mayhem.
The witnesses had alleged that the mayhem
was perpetrated by soldiers who were
protesting the death of their colleague who
was allegedly crushed by a BRT bus.
At the resumed hearing of the tribunal, Ande
told the panel that the witnesses needed to be
recalled because the army was not legally
represented while they were testifying.
He said: "As it stands now, we want to take a
date to cross-examine all the witnesses and
we will equally be asking for copies of all the
documents that they tendered before the
tribunal.
"We need time to go through the documents
to enable us cross-examine the stated
witnesses."
Adebajo granted the request and directed all
parties of interest to henceforth produce
sufficient copies of all documents they intended
to tender before the tribunal.
He also directed the army to provide
information relating to the deceased soldier,
including the pathologist report to the tribunal
at the next adjournment.
Earlier, Project Manager, Mutual Model
Transport Limited, Mr Abiodun Apata, said a
tracking device was installed on Bus MO63
which was involved in the accident which led
to the soldier's death.
Apata maintained that the bus broke down
and was stationary at the time of the incident.
The tribunal adjourned sitting till September
22 for further hearing.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

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