FRSC officer threatens boss with lawsuit

 

AN officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr. Fatus Okowei, has threatened to go to court if nothing was done by the agency to address an assault on him by the Rivers State Sector Commander, Mr. Sunday Oghenekaro.

Okowei had alleged that Oghenekaro slapped him in the public at the Rehoboth Hospital located in Port Harcourt, the state capital.

It was alleged that the FRSC employee was transferred from the command in Rivers State to Mokwa in Niger State as a punitive measure.

Okowei, according to a document obtained by Southern City News, was on April 2, 2015 asked to continue his duty as a road safety official in Niger State without being paid any transfer allowance.

The circumstance that allegedly led to Okowei’s transfer without pay after he was physically assaulted by the Rivers State Sector Commander had continued to cause ripples within the command.

Okowei had petitioned the Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the commission, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi, on the incident that occurred on July 18, 2014.

However, a document marked FRSC/HQ/AHR/497/Vol.3/106, dated 02, April 2015 with the title Posting, “Management has approved the posting of the Marshal listed below to the Command indicated against his name.

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“The Marshal (Okowei) is to report and assume duty with immediate effect. Completed Assumption of Duty Certificate(s) duly signed by his supervising officer must be forwarded to the undersigned for further necessary action. Please, note that the Marshal (Fatus Okowei) is not entitled to transfer allowance.”

Not satisfied with the alleged injustice done to him, the FRSC employee warned that he would seek redress in court if the authorities failed to protect his right as a junior staff.

“That I am invoking the spirit of FRSC New Regulation on Maintenance of Discipline, Part 2, section 28 (1a) for redress; and that if the corps fails to protect my right because I am a junior staff (marshal), I will seek redress from the court and the Nigerian public with the last drop of my blood and breath,” a portion of Okowei’s petition read.

The petition was addressed to the Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of FRSC through the Zonal Commander, RS6 Headquarters, Port Harcourt and the Sector Commander, RS6.1, Rivers State.

Okowei had in the petition stated how one Officer F.O. Eze had asked him and four other officials of the corps to take an accident victim (a female marshal of the corps) to a clinic for a laboratory test.

He also narrated how the relatives of the accident victims decided that she (victim) be taken to Rehoboth Hospital.

“Sooner, the zonal doctor, J.C. Uchenma and the U/C Isiokpo came in (to Rehoboth Hospital). I directed them to where the victim was and they went in to see the doctor on duty. Then my sector commander, Sunday Oghenekaro, came in.

“After giving him his due compliment, I equally directed him to where the other officers are. After a short while, they came out and at sighting me, he (Oghenekaro) asked, what I am doing there and what brought me there (at the hospital)?

“I stood up and tried to explain that I came in respect of the staff that had an accident. The next thing I got was a slap. I was flabbergasted. Silence befell the reception of the hospital as patients, staff of the corps, hospital workers, both security and nurses watched in amazement,” Okowei narrated.

A report from the zonal commanding officer, which indicted Oghenekaro, recommended that the state sector commander (Oghenekaro) and Okowei be invited with a view to settling the case of assault.

The report signed by ACM Julius A. Asom recommended that Oghenekaro and Okowei be admonished individually against similar incidents.

However, when Southern City News visited Oghenekaro at the State Sector Command, he described FRSC as an organisation that would always resolve its challenges within and not in public domain.

Also, when our correspondent contacted the Public Relations Officer of the FRSC, Rivers State Command, Mr. Michael Sunday John, through the telephone to speak on the development, he (John) said he was not aware of the development.

John, however, promised to call Southern City News by 10am on Tuesday (yesterday) to respond to the issue, which he never did.