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Hon. Gadafi Asemanya Jnr helps an accident victim to a health facility
Honourable Gadafi M. Asemanya Jnr, is the Founder/CEO, 24hrs Accident Victims Support Initiative, (24hrs TRAVSI, NGO). From 2007-2015, he was Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Benue State on Public Utilities and Critical Infrastructure and Head of Operations, Benue State Task Force on Petroleum Price Monitoring and Regulatory Committee. He spoke about his work of saving lives of road accident victims, collaboration with other agency on road safety matters among others. Excerpts:
By Anthony Maliki
Were there problems in the road safety system you identified before starting 24hours Accident Victims Support Initiative, TRAVSI?
Yes. There were problems confronting road crashes victims who die prematurely on daily basis as result of lack of quick responses from the general public because of fear of the police might arrest them in an event of death.
Have you been able to solve those problems or challenges with what you are doing in TRAVSI?
Yes. When we came on board, we started identifying a lot of problems and challenges which we took headlong to solve them by catering for victims. We take victims to the hospital, give them medical attention, stabilize them and reunite them with their various family members.
However, our major concern is funding and lack of ambulance to evacuate crash victims to the nearest hospital for medical attention.
Are you alone doing TRAVSI work or able to train others to assist you?
I actually started alone because a lot of persons don’t have passion for humanity and humanitarian work because it is not a paying job and needed total commitment and sacrifices.
What efforts are you doing to enlighten motorists about road accident issues?
We have entered into partnerships with some organizations and currently we are partnering with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Benue State. They have accepted to train our Volunteers Scout in rescuing of victims of road crashes and other live-saving emergencies across the state. The Red Cross also promised to come and train our Volunteers Scout in the state. Our friends who are medical doctors have offer them selves to train 24hrs TRAVSI NGO Volunteers Scout. We equally carry out enlightenment programmes on the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Brothers FM and Radio Benue, Makurdi.
We are also going into partnership with Radio Benue ‘Road Matter’ programme where we talk to motorists, Okada riders and Police every Tuesday from 8-10am.
What number of rescues have you carried out since you started TRAVSI?
We have rescued over 300 road crashes across the state and adjoining Nasarawa, Kogi and Taraba states.
What year did you begin TRAVSI?
TRAVSI was formed since 2015 and got registered in 2017 with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
What other interventions do you do?
We equally visit Internally Displace Persons (IDPs) camps to educate children and adults living on major highways. Most IDPs are situated on the highways and even in schools and markets. Most times motorists and Okada ran into them killing them or causing serious injuries. We are the only NGO in Nigeria that offer these special services even above road safety, Police and other security agencies.
We pay for victims’ hospital cards, we pay for that First Aid treatment to stabilize the victims in the hospital, reunite victims with their family members death or alive, we safeguard victims’ properties and hand them over to them or their family members and also resolved conflicts between the motorists and Okada in areas they all agree amicable settlement or we hand them over to Police for further investigation and possible prosecution.
Besides, our team equally follow up to see the victims in their respective houses to known how they are doing medically, we have a Clinical Phycologist who also talk to them and advice them most especially the once under-aged driving and those under the influence of hard drugs and alcohol, transport some of the victims to native doctor where they can’t afford money to pay for their movement to some villages to take local treatment. For example, patient with broken legs, arms and other fractures.
At 24 Hours Road Accident Victims Support Initiative, our vision is to save lives and provide emergency support for road accident victims and mission to champion best practice in response to road accidents and support victims to access quick medical support, protect their properties, and contact their loved ones and public safety officials. Our objectives are to collaborate with government agencies, development partners, NGOs, CSOs, media and private organizations to ensure that lives and properties of road accident victims are protected, facilitate uniting victims with their families, engage with road transport unions (cars, tricycles and motorcycles) on best practices in responding to road accidents, increase community awareness on their roles as road accident first responders and intensify general public awareness on how to support road accident victims.
