By Chinenyer Ozor, Nsukka
TWO commercial motorcycle operators (Okada) in Nsukka, Enugu State are lying critically ill at the Bishop Shanahan Hospital, Nsukka, following injuries they sustained during a clash with officers of Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC.

Vanguard reporter who visited the injured persons at the Out Patient Department, OPD, of the hospital said the two motorcyclists whose names were given simply as Sunday Joshua from Jos, Plateau State; and Ugochukwu Oguzie, from Mbaize in Imo State, were lying unconscious. The head of one of the victims, Sunday, was bandaged while his left hand was broken. He had a deep wound on his leg while Ugochukwu was laid on a stretcher with wounds and a swollen face.

One of the victims, Sunday on the hospital bed

Crime Alert learnt that trouble started during the zonal meeting of members of the Federal Road Safety Corps from Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi and Imo States at Nsukka. It was gathered that during an enlightenment campaign by the corps members, their junior officers were reportedly directed to move into the town only for them to lay siege at a strategic point along the busy Enugu Road for Okada riders without helmets.

Avenging rumoured death

Eyewitnesses said the two unconscious Okada men were allegedly being chased by the corps members when the incident took place. The sources said that as soon as the two motorcyclists were rushed to the hospital, other cyclists chased the FRSC men to the hospital where they succeeded in smashing the windscreen of two of their vehicles and revolving lights. One of the officers identified as Mr. Godwin narrowly escaped death when he was chased into the hospital chapel by irate cyclists who were avenging the rumoured death of two of their colleagues.

Earlier, scores of Okada operators had taken over the hospital gate and virtually held some FRSC officers hostage. The officers, however, escaped death by whiskers by fleeing into the hospital. FRSC sector Commander in Nsukka, Mr. John Eneze later told Crime Alert that the attack on his men was uncalled for because they did not chase them as alleged. Eneze said the two injured persons sustained injury when they collided while fleeing to avoid arrest for not wearing helmets, stressing that they were holding a zonal meeting of FRSC when news of the clash reached him.

He disclosed that when the collision occurred, his men assisted by taking the victims to the hospital and that it was at the hospital that some cyclists attacked them based on rumours that FRSC men were responsible for their injury.

At press time, the two injured persons were yet to regain consciousness while relations of Sunday Joshua were making efforts to take him to University Teaching Hospital, UJTH, Jos, Plateau State for proper medical attention.

The Chairman, commercial motorcycle operators, Nsukka Local Government Area, Mr. Jasper Ugwoke, who spoke on the ugly development said he was not there when the incident happened but was told that FRSC officers were chasing cyclists without helmet inside the town when it occurred. He said he rushed to the scene where scores of cyclists were spoiling for a show down with officials of FRSC and that it only took the intervention of military men to disperse them. Mr. Ugwoke assured that the situation was under control and that the victims were responding to treatment.

Meanwhile, while the victims are still lying speechless at the hospital, no official of FRSC has visited to sympathize with them. Officials of the hospital that pleaded for anonymity told Crime Alert that the chances of survival of the victims were very slim because of the severity of the injuries they sustained.