Ocholi: Driver, critically ill, suspected; faces investigation

The driver of the ill-fated SUV in which Labour Minister of State James Ocholi died on Sunday took and uploaded online the pictures of the mangled body of the minister, the car, and other victims.

Some members of the Ocholis revealed this Monday as they called for an inquiry into the accident and the profile of the driver.

“We want to know who recruited the driver, and at what speed (he was during the trip) to the extent that the corpse of the deceased cannot even be recognised. Can you imagine that? I am worried. It is worrisome,” said Abdallah Aliu, uncle to the late minister.

The family believe the breach of protocol after the accident is also worth investigating. According to Aliu, when a VIP is involved in an accident, the scene is normally cordoned off, and the casualties will be evacuated. But that didn’t happen on Sunday.

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“We leave this responsibility in your care. Whoever recruited the driver and posted (redeploy) him should be investigated. It can happen to any minister. It can happen because it has happened,” he told Labour Minister Chris Ngige.

And the federal government has accepted to investigate the accident.

“We will find out and investigate it. We will do. But I can tell you that our personal drivers are known to us and we both keep our personal drivers. We will find out and investigate this,” Ngige told the family.

The Ocholis have been thrown into mourning since Sunday when the junior minister, his wife Blessing, and son Joshua died in auto crash along Kaduna-Abuja road. The SUV they were in had a blow out, and the driver hit the break, causing the vehicle to somersault severally.

Ocholi and his son died, while the wife, in a coma, died on arrival in a hospital in Kaduna. The driver and other survivors, hospitalised,  are said to be in critical conditions.