Traffic Official says Driver gathered N500 notes from Fayose’s G-Class after Fire Incident in Lagos

Traffic officials raced to the scene as a vehicle in the convoy of Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose was razed by fire on Tuesday.

The G-Class, in which the governor was riding, was in a lone accident before catching fire, Punch reports.

Traffic officials from the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) were on the scene to douse the fire.

One of the traffic officials on the scene reported that Fayose quickly escaped the car after the accident, driving off with another vehicle in his convoy.

The driver of the G-Class was seen after the fire had been put out gathering N500 notes from the vehicle into a polythene bag.

The traffic official said:

The accident happened around 1.30pm on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway inward Airport Road. It happened on the Oshodi bridge, not too far from the LASTMA’s headquarters.

We cannot tell the exact cause of the fire. We gathered from those at the scene that the governor was in the G-Class when the accident happened and he quickly escaped into another car in his convoy.

On getting to the scene, we saw the driver who tried to cover his face with a Fez cap. He watched helplessly as the fire raged on. We alerted the state fire service and LASEMA. The LASEMA response unit had to take one way to access the accident scene because the road was blocked because of the inferno.

On arrival, they were able to douse the fire. The vehicle was seriously burnt. The driver did not talk to anybody. We saw as he started packing some of the burnt cash in the car. They were N500 notes. He packed the money with some other items into a polythene bag. This was in the presence of traffic officials and the police. We later cleared the traffic as the wreckage of the car was towed away by LASEMA.

However, in a statement released by Fayose’s Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, he said the governor was not in the car before the fire began.

Read his statement below:

Re: Governor Fayose escaped death, car burnt down in Lagos

There was an accident involving Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose’s vehicle on his way to the airport yesterday.

Though he was meant to be in the vehicle, by providence, he was not there.

What caused the sudden fire under the vehicle is yet to be ascertained.

The governor is grateful to God that no casualty was recorded. He also thanked the people who made spirited efforts to put out the fire.

Lere Olayinka
SA (Public Communications and New Media)

Photo Credit: Punch