How Lagos State Permanent Secretary Acted Inhumanly To An Accident Victim

Alltimepost.com, Lagos – The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development under the Lagos State Government on Thursday, 12th November, 2015 acted inhumanly to an accident victim who is a citizen of the State, and asked to repair the damage section of the ministry’s building.

According to report, the victim, Mr Augustine Okuns, who was in the car with his family members comprising of two little girls and the wife, were on their way back home from work on that faithful day around 6.30pm when their car failed brake and plunged into the fence of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development in Alausa, Lagos.

In an interview with the victim, he said “immediately the incident happened people gather to offer help to my family and make sure we were all safe. We were brought out and asked to sit down so we could regain consciousness.

“The attention of the Permanent Secretary, Mrs Dapo Thomas, was brought to the scene that night. But to my surprise the Permanent Secretary never asked for those involved in the accident neither was she concerned about the life of the victims but she instructed that the damaged part of the building be repaired immediately, also asked that the vehicle documents be collected and the vehicle be impounded and Tyre deflated until the fence is repaired”, the victim said.

She said “I’m going home and this people want to use their own to disturb me (referring to us),” the victim reported.

The accident victim said, On Saturday he got a bricklayer who out of sympathy and concern volunteered to fix the fence without collecting money from him.

He said the bricklayer was surprised at the utterance and instruction of the Permanent Secretary.

“Do you mean the Government is just concerned about their fence and not even the life of the people involved in the accident?”, the bricklayer asked.

“If a Government can respond to this kind of incident this way, then we don’t have a Government”, says a sympathizer.

According to the victim, on Saturday the security men on duty added salt to injuries as they tried to strike a corrupt deal in making money from them.

“The security men asked us to use the Government building materials such as blocks and sand in exchange for money, but we declined and told them we will buy the materials outside and bring them to the site for repair work. The Chief Security Officer who initiated the deal was not happy with our decision and threaten not to provide water since we decided to buy materials outside and did not collect from them, that we should go and buy water also,” he said.

But with the intervention of a good civil servant whom the victim said he cannot forgot for his good act, water was provided and the repair work was completed the next day.

The victim was expected to retrieve his car with the documents on Monday for repairs.

Unfortunately, according to the Public Relation Officer of the Ministry, Mr Ajayi, the victim could not retrieve his car with the documents because the Permanent Secretary who is supposed to write a letter to that effect was busy with Budget presentation.

Likewise the DFA was busy and could not attend to the matter on ground for same reason.

As at Tuesday, the vehicle was still at the ministry. But around 1400hour (GMT+1) the DFA authorized the release of the car while the Permanent Secretary was still withholding the car document for unknown reason.

The Family members of the victim have since been discharged from the hospital after a medical treatment. (Corruption Freeland)