How Kogi Governor, Idris Wada Became A Terror On

The Highway The frequency with which the convoy of Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada, is involved in accidents have become troubling. To say many people were shocked, when the news broke last week that the convoy of the Governor killed was involved in another accident is to state the obvious. The former National President, Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Prof. Festus Iyayi, died in an accident involving Wada’s convoy. Iyayi was on his way to Kano for the National Executive Council, NEC meeting of ASUU. This is coming less than a year, when the same convoy of the Governor was involved in an auto crash, where lives were lost and the Governor was badly injured. The bus with which Professor Festus Iyayi was travelling reportedly had a head-on-collision with one of the escort vehicles of the Governor on his way to the National Congress of ASUU in Kano, where the issue of the on-going strike action embarked upon by the lecturers would have been discussed. The incident occurred at a failed portion of the highway around Lokoja in Kogi State. Iyayi’s death has since become a setback to the purported plan of ASUU to end their four-month old strike after a protracted meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan by the national leaders of the union in Aso Rock, Abuja few days back. Eye witness accounts have it that Festus Iyayi was in the bus with few other leaders of the union, when the incident occurred, and that while others sustained serious and minor injuries, Iyayi was badly hit and he gave up the ghost afterwards. Iyayi was part of the ASUU delegation that met with the Federal Government team headed by President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja penultimate Monday. Not a few people are angry that Governor Idris Wada’s convoy has been too reckless with driving, when they ought to set the pace for others on the highway. According to them, the two past incidents, where lives were lost should have served as lessons for the Governor and his convoy. They stated that Wada should be made to face the music and that driver of the vehicle that hit the bus in which Iyayi was travelling should be prosecuted for reckless driving. One other twist to the whole matter last week as some people insinuated that the whole thing bothers on ritual, and that the Governor must explain why his own is different amongst other Governors if he has no ulterior motive. Leaders of ASUU, including the National President, Dr. Biodun Ogunyemi; the Ibadan Zonal Leader Co-ordinator, Dr. Nasir chased Governor Idris Wada out of the Emergency Ward of Lokoja General Hospital, where he had gone to see some of the wounded occupants of the vehicle, who were on admission. The feeling that Kogi Governor’s convoy is allegedly reckless was palpable Thursday last week, when the Federal Road Safety Corps Marshal and Chief Executive Officer, Osita Chidoka, fielded questions from journalists during this year’s Africa Road Safety Day/ World Day for Remembrance of Road Traffic Crash Victims. Chidoka disclosed that the convoy of Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada, had crashed three times within three months. Chidoka also said the Kogi State Government had not sent its convoy drivers for a special training which the FRSC designed to certify drivers for convoy driving. He said FRSC team was still collating the facts to understand the actual cause of the accident that took the life of the erudite professor. The Corps Marshal added that it was still too early to determine the cause of the accident, adding that investigation by FRSC was on-going and would be made public when completed.