There is no doubt that the fatal auto crash has decimated the university community, given the mournful mood and dour atmosphere that now pervades the academic environment. Fewer faculties and departments were spared the loss of a student and the attendant agony.
When the students woke up on that fateful day, little did they know that an incident that would engender sorrow, tears and blood was lurking on the Sagamu-Benin expressway. As many of them prepared for their weekend, what would within a few seconds turn into a tragedy occurred.
Twelve students of the institution who were on their way to Lagos, got killed in an auto crash on Sagamu-Benin expressway penultimate Friday.
The gruesome accident occurred when a container-laden truck with Lagos number: BDG 779 XE drove against traffic and collided with the Mazda bus conveying the students and the container fell on the vehicle, crushing the 12 students, including the driver.
Only one of the students, Ibukun Akinbo escaped death in the auto crash. Her cousin with whom she was travelling in the ill-fatescaped death in the auto crash. Her cousin ed bus perished along with the others.
Akinbo, a 300-Level Chemistry student is currently receiving treatment at the Babcock University Teaching Hospital, Ilishan.
By last Monday, the atmosphere at the institution’s campuses in Ago-Iwoye was still dull and gloomy and the rains came down in torrents for minutes over the university town as if the weather elements actually shed tears to empathise with the lost young souls and sympathize with their families.
Singing sorrowful dirges, the grieving students who were dressed in all-black and carrying placards bearing various inscriptions deploring the unfortunate development, then filed into a convoy of buses and headed towards the scene of the accident.
About 40 minutes later, the students arrived at the scene of the crash in a convoy of several long and smaller buses, led by a combined team of armed policemen, FRSC and TRACE officials.
The sober-looking students cried and cried for the sake of their dead colleagues, evoking emotions from even the security and traffic operatives at the scene.
The students then formed a ring holding hands as they held a prayer session and observed a minute silence for the repose of the souls of their dead colleagues. The prayer session was conducted in both the Christian and Muslim modes of worship.
Expressing further, one of the students continuously hit his head on the ill-fated container as he wailed uncontrollably, raising fears among his colleagues who felt he could harm himself if not quickly stopped.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com..
Another furiously engaged the ill-fated container in a fisticuffs, dealing the metal several blows as if he was fighting with a sparing partner at a boxing training gym in preparation for a contest.
Some of the placards carried by the students read: “We Demand Justice for the Lost Souls,” OOU Mourns, OOU Weeps, OOU Cries,” “A Future Lawyer is Gone!,” “Fresh Graduate Gone!,” “We’ve Lost Our Scientists,” “OOUITES Are Not Chickens. Stop Giving us Phobia,” “Police, FRSC, TRACE Must Be Probed.”
As if seized by the spirits of their dead colleagues crying for vengeance, the students suddenly went wild and headed for the nearby premises of the plastic manufacturing company said to own the consignment of raw materials enclosed in the container. The company is located a few metres away from the scene of the fatal auto crash.
They also forced open the fallen container and threatened to destroy the contents.
The angry students, wept profusely, hauled curses and abuses at the run-away trailer driver and the manufacturing company.
The students’ protest forced many of the scared motorists plying the expressway to make a quick detour and take alternative routes.
The protesting students who completely took over a long stretch of the expressway, also attacked drivers of two container-bearing trailers and another laden with cement. While the two container-bearing trailers escaped amid the missiles being thrown at them by the students, the cement-laden trailer was not lucky.
The students succeeded in bringing it to a halt, vandalizing the vehicle and attacking the driver, who immediately fled the scene along with his “motor boy”.
Several pleas by the officials of the police and other security agencies to persuade the students not to be violent or storm the premises of the company fell on deaf ears.
On their arrival at the gate to the company’s premises, the students over-powered the men manning the entrance and forced the gates open.
They rushed into the company premises and vandalised some of its buildings and vehicles, broke window glasses and panes while many of the workers scampered into hiding to escape the students’ wrath.
At the end of the rampage by the students, no fewer than 11 trucks already loaded with products and awaiting transportation to the market were vandalised.
The products conveyed by the vandalized trucks were also strewn on the ground by the students whose anger rose on sighting inside the premises of the manufacturing company plastic chemical drums similar to those found in the fallen container which caused penultimate Friday’s accident.
Recalling memories of some of the victims of the fatal accident, many of the students described the sudden death of their colleagues in the auto crash as an open wound that may take eternity to heal in their minds, nay that of their relations.
One of the students, Benjamin Abayomi wailed uncontrollably throughout the protest by his colleagues at the scene of the auto crash while asking anyone who cared to listen to him, “Where is Dami?, Where is Dami?” in reference to one of the victims, Dami Odubanjo, a 200 level Biological Science student.
According to Abayomi, who apparently was very close to Odubanjo, he and the victim got to know each other during their 100 level days and had remained friends until her death penultimate Friday in the auto crash.
As our correspondent spoke with Abayomi, the student suddenly pointed and ran towards the wreckage of the bus, shouting, “Look at Dami’s textbook! That’s the textbook she was reading in preparation for her GNS course!”
Another student, Precious Okoh, a 300 level undergraduate of the institution said she and her friends would never forget a 100 level Accounting student, Adams Suliat Oluwatobi who also lost her life in the crash.
Okoh who shed tears profusely described Adams as “brilliant, obedient. She’s like a daughter to all of us.”
Femi Oluwole regretted that it would be hard for the university to find replacement for the students who died in the auto crash.
Oluwole stressed that the victims constituted a generation of the academic community, lamenting that the huge loss would also be palpably felt in many other ways.
Fatai Odewale however said that the police should take part of the blame for the accident.
According to him, the accident was an indictment on the police whose area command is just a few metres away from the scene of the crash.
“There is a company here where the trailers always come to drop raw materials. They always take one-way, facing oncoming vehicles. It’s an indictment on the police whose area command is just a stone-throw from here,” he said.
Adeola Adefemi, a 200 level English student expressed regret that it would take the university community years to recover from the loss of the generation of youths who died in the auto crash.
Adefemi added that the university would never be the same again, following the incident.
The President of the OOU Students’ Union Government, Adenola Adegbesan appealed to the state government and other public-spirited persons to assist the families of their colleagues who died in last Friday’s crash.
Adegbesan said although no amount of money could compensate for the lives of the victims, it would give succour to their depressed relations.
The OOU SUG president also called on the state government to come to the aid of the victims’ families in the burial of their dead colleagues.
Adegbesan however disclosed that the students have issued a seven-day ultimatum to the police and the owners of the truck involved in the accident to produce the driver who fled the scene after the tragedy.
He said, “As I am speaking with you, I have not received any correspondence from the truck owners not even to commiserate with us for the lives lost. Such acts of recklessness cannot be condoned on our roads and we demand that the fleeing driver be remanded and prosecuted.
“It will serve as a deterrent to other motorists who fail to obey traffic rules, especially drivers of heavy duty vehicles who drive without regard for other road users.”
He also advised government to regulate the movement of trucks on the highways by restricting their operations to the night times only.
“I would like government to look into how they can reduce the number of heavy duty vehicles on the highways. The sheer number of trucks on the roads these days are alarming and they are always a disaster waiting to happen due to the drivers recklessness,” Adegbesan said.
OOU Vice Chancellor, Prof Saburi Adesanya condemned the flagrant violation of traffic rules by motorists in the country.
Adesanya who looked distraught and downcast, described the death of the students as a big loss to the university community and the nation at large.
The OOU vice chancellor spoke when the Ogun State Command of the Federal Road Safety Commission paid a condolence visit to the management of the university.
He commended the FRSC for deeming it fit to commiserate with the university community at a time when it was mourning.
“I’m glad that you have come to pay us this visit. You are actually the first to do this and we really appreciate it.
“It’s a big loss to us here and at this time of our reorganisation. We share the grief of our parents and we will give them a shoulder to cry on,” he said.
Adesanya urged all motorists to always strive to obey traffic rules, irrespective of their status in the society in order to avoid accidents on the roads.
“The question of anybody, no matter how high or low, who is travelling against traffic is totally condemnable anywhere in the world;it is a recipe for disaster,” he said.
Earlier, the Ogun State Sector Commander of the FRSC, Adegoke Adetunji promised that a thorough investigation would be carried out on the incident with a view to apprehending the run-away driver and prosecuting the erring parties.
Adetunji, who led the other officers of the corps also expressed sympathy with the management of the OOU and parents of the dead students.
The Ogun FRSC boss advised motorists and commuters to always respect road signs and take other road users into consideration while behind the steering.
“Though the driver and motor boy of the truck ran away when it happened, we have swung into action to get the owner of the truck.
“Once we do that, he will produce the driver and he will be charged to court,” the sector commander said.
Earlier, chairman of the OOU branch of Academic Staff Union of University, Dr. Deji Agboola had told journalists that ASUU members and other personnel of the institution were at the scene of the auto crash in solidarity with the grieving students and also to ensure that they did not go violent in the course of their prayer session at the scene of the crash on the expressway.
Dr. Agboola also said that the management of the institution had constituted a 5-man committee comprising students and lecturers to ensure that families of the crash victims were adequately compensated.
When our correspondent visited the scene of the auto crash on Tuesday, the wreckage of the bus was still littered with the clothes, books and other torn personal belongings of the dead students.
For now, the scene of the auto crash would remain a sad reminder to the students of the university and the relations of their colleagues who lost their lives on that spot on June 26, 2015.
Click photo to download; but you lied to me by Expdona aka finish gravity
Expdonaloaded blog;Click the photo to download aboki wey d suya by Expdona aka finish gravity
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