The Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, apologised for a tweet Monday afternoon, reporting a fully loaded public transport bus, BRT, fell off the 3rd Mainland Bridge, Lagos.
Jonas Agwu, spokesman for the commission said the tweet sent out from a Blackberry phone at 12:33pm could not be confirmed and should be “disregarded.”
Although the tweet was deleted from the commission’s handle, the commission still apologised further. Agwu could not immediately say why its officers sent out the tweet, he, however, said it was a “hoax” and investigations are underway.
“We have spoken to the Lagos Command and there is nothing like that,” he said.
The Lagos state sector commander of FRSC, Nse Akpabio, denied that the information that lead to the tweet from Abuja emanated from them.
“Who called them (FRSC Abuja, managers of the twitter handle)?” he asked.
The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, however, said a BRT bus crashed at about the time FRSC sent out the spurious tweet, at another location.
“A BRT bus was involved in an accident at Ebute-Ero, near Idumota, Lagos Island, with casualties, no mortality,” Oluwafemi Oke, LASEMA boss said.
FRSC operates its twitter account frequently since its first tweet in September 2009 and has over 13,000 followers keeps updated with traffic news, road accident and driving tips.
It also maintains a Facebook Page with over 16,000 ‘likes’ and is one of the government agencies that are open with information.
Since its apology, there has been mixed reactions. While a few are thankful such a shocking tragedy didn’t occur, others were highly disappointed a report like that got published without confirmation.
