Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports.
Five Abia State Traffic and Indiscipline Management Agency, TIMAAS, officials have been charged in an Abia Magistrate Court in Aba North Magisterial District.
The officials were charged in the case MAE/78/2022, Commissioner of Police versus Onwuhara Victor and four others, for engaging in acts of causing harm, specifically pushing one Miss Kelly, 17, off a moving vehicle on Brass Junction in Aba.
The girl was admitted to the police clinic in Aba for one week before being transferred to a local bone healer, where she is being treated for a bone fracture caused by TIMAAS officials pushing her out of a moving vehicle.
The officials pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to them on the first hearing date.
The presiding magistrate, S. E. Elekeson, granted bail in the amount of N2.5m with one surety, Bright Chinedum Ikeokwu, GM of TIMAAS, who the court ordered to deposit two passport photographs.
Elekeson stated that he was guided by what the defense counsel told the court, that on or before the next adjourned date, his client, Ikeokwu, promised to cover the victim’s parents’ expenses.
The Magistrate warned that bail could be revoked if the surety failed to fulfill his promise to cover the first complainant’s parents’ expenses.
On the adjourned date of yesterday for report of out-of-court settlement, the victim’s mother, Joyce Egbusinwa, informed the court that the matter had not been settled out of court.
She stated that she had not yet been approached about an out-of-court settlement by the accused or their counsel.
In his ruling, the Magistrate expressed concern about the accused’s attitude toward the out-of-court settlement agreement and reminded them that the agreement was the reason they were granted bail in the first place.
The Magistrate gave the parties one week to reach an out-of-court settlement, warning that if they did not, the case would be heard in court.
He rescheduled the case for a report on the out-of-court settlement on July 27 and ordered that the agency’s vehicle, which had been impounded by police, remain in their custody until the next adjourned date.
