Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz who died this week had sacked one of the Kingdom’s traffic police chiefs because he helped a member of the ruling family avert road congestions, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

The unnamed prince had called the traffic police director and said he was travelling by his car from Riyadh to the western town of Makkah and that he was worried about being caught in traffic jam on the way for important business.

The unidentified traffic official immediately sent a police car which cleared traffic and escorted the prince to his destination, Aleqtisadiah said.

“Prince Nayef, known for his straightforwardness and fairness, learned about that incident,” the Arabic language daily said.

“He then called the traffic police chief and asked him why he sent a police car to that prince…the police official replied that he was asked by the prince to clear the road for him so he sent  him a police car….Prince Nayef then said to him ‘can every Saudi citizen get a police car in case of road congestion,’….the police official was silent for a moment before saying ‘no…..the crown prince then ordered the retirement of that officer—an other example of his fairness, straightforwardness and concern about his country’s people.”

Another incident mentioned by the paper was that a senior Interior Ministry official contacted his friend at the police college and asked him to admit one student who was not eligible because of his low school marks.

“The college chief accepted that student and the case was somewhat reported to Prince Nayef, who asked the college commander about it…the commander replied that the student was admitted on recommendation by the Interior Ministry official…Prince Nayef then ordered the sacking of both officials.”