Ocholi’s Driver Had No Driving Licence –FRSC

The Federal Government may prosecute James Elegbede, the driver of the late Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. James Ocholi (SAN for driving without a valid driving licence and speeding at the time the Sunday crash that claimed the lives of
the minister, his wife and son, occurred.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal, gave the indication on Wednesday while answering questions from State House correspondents.


The FRSC Corps Marshal, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi, had indicated in the report that the driver was on excessive speed at the time of the crash.

“There is a speed limit in place and so if anybody chooses not to obey traffic laws, of course, he is subject to prosecution by the agencies concerned.

“But as to this particular incident, I think we will leave it until the final report of the investigation comes out. But, of course, as we say, accident is accident and nobody goes out deliberately to somersault and die.”

Oyeyemi said after losing one of the rear tyres of the vehicle, the driver, who was on high speed, applied the breaks and thereafter lost control of the vehicle.

“Information gathered revealed that the driver of the crashed vehicle was actually moving at an excess of the stipulated speed when he had a tyre burst.”

The FRSC boss added that although the crashed vehicle’s tyres had not expired at the time of the accident, investigation revealed that they were wrongly fixed.

“The DOT number of the tyres were inward, which cannot easily be read from outside. This indicates that the orientations of the tyres were not properly fixed, which could adversely affect the performance of the tyres,” he said.

He added that the late Ocholi and his son were ejected from the car because they did not use the rear seat belts.

“The major safety issues identified in this crash were the operating vehicle speed, driver’s panicky situation due to sudden tyre explosion, hard application of brakes, tyre maintenance, vehicle crash worthiness and availability and non-use of safety rear seat belts by the minister, his wife and son,” Oyeyemi added.