By Abdulwahab Abdulah & Jane Echewodo

lagos—A new twist was yesterday added to the traffic dispute that occurred two weeks back as Mrs Yetunde Osijo, a mother of three charged for committing traffic offences against a Lagos Magistrate, Funke Sule-Hamzat, made a move to resolve the matter out of court.

This was disclosed before Magistrate Tajudeen Elias of a Lagos Magistrate court sitting in Ogba, when the matter came up yesterday.

However, Vanguard exclusively gathered that the option of committing the insurance companies that insured vehicles to repair the damaged car may have been one of the conditions or grounds to resolve the matter out of court.

The moment the matter was called yesterday, the lawyers appearing for both parties informed the court that there was a process initiated by the defendant to settle the case with the complainant, (Hamzat).

Osijo, who announced her intention to assuage the Magistrate’s anger over the issue told the court through her counsel, Ahmed  Adetola Kazeem that she has started a move to settle the matter amicably with the complainant.

Mr Ali Emmanuel, a lawyer representing the state judiciary, the employer of Magistrate Hamzat also confirmed to the court that the defendant approached the complainant for peaceful settlement.

Messrs Bamidele Ibironke and Abdul Kehinde, who were both watching brief for the complaint aligned themselves with Emmanuel’s position, submitting that the court should grant them a short adjournment to exhaust the arrangement for settlement.

Responding, the defendant’s counsel, aligned himself with the development, saying, “Your Honour, that is the position.”

The matter was subsequently adjourned till April 19, for report of settlement.

Before now, insurance experts have faulted the  arraignment of Mrs Osijo for traffic offence.

Managing Director of Quicklink Insurance Brokers, Mr. Rotimi Edu, said that it is wrong and high-handedness on the part of the police to arraign and send the woman to prison for hitting the magistrate’s car.

According to him, the magistrate should be conscious of the fact that the accident did not kill anybody.

He said: “What the magistrate should have done is to find out if the other person has insurance, then the case should have been reported to the insurance company. She should be reported to the Judicial Commission and they should call her to order.”

Also, Mr. Tope Adaramola, Assistant Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers, added that it was not proper for the magistrate to drag the issue to court in the first instance, irrespective of her status in society.

Adaramola stated that such action is illegal because the law mandates every vehicle owner to have a valid insurance policy and where there is an insurance contract in place, the action of the magistrate is tantamount to over-use of power.

He said: “Where there is no insurance contract in place, the magistrate might be justified to drag the other party to court; but the human interest should be considered here.

“Also, the liability of the accident should have been passed to the insurance company because the insurance company is liable to compensate the victim in this instance.”

A breakdown of the expected vessels showed that three are to bring in 453.9 metric tones of general cargo, M.V. Green Freezer is expected to berth with 109 metric tones of frozen fish while three others are expected to bring in 570 metric tones of bulk sugar.

Similarly, M.V. BALTIC PANTHE and 14 other ships are expected to ship in 190 metric tones of bulk wheat and containers respectively. Other items expected to arrive the country during the period under review are crude palm olein, steel products, diesel, ethanol and petrol.

The document noted that four ships had arrived the ports, waiting to berth are; M.V. STI MILAUKEE, M.V. MSK KALEA, M.V. RHINO and M.V. ORE OFE.  While M.V. MSK KALEA, M.V. RHINO are expected to discharge 348 metric tones of JET A1, the other two will be discharging Petroleum Motor Spirit, PMS or Petrol and Dual Purpose Kerosine, DPK.