Four members of the same family– a father,
mother and their two kids– have been crushed
to death by a truck laden with bags of rice.
The accident was said to have happened along
the Iwo-Ibadan Road in Osun State.
A passenger in a commercial bus, who witnessed
the accident, told our correspondent in Osogbo
on Sunday that Mr. and Mrs. Olumide Bankole;
their children, Sharon and Shama, were crushed
to death by the truck which lost control in an
attempt to avoid running into a queue of vehicles
on the road due to a police checkpoint.
The eyewitness, who identified himself as Leke
Okunola, said rescuers at the scene learnt that
the family was traveling from Ogbomoso in Oyo
State to Ibadan when the accident occurred
around Odo Oba River on Christmas Eve.
He said the car in which the Bankoles were
travelling was coming from Iwo and heading
towards Ibadan, while the truck was coming
from Ibadan.
The eyewitness blamed the accident on the
police checkpoint, saying if the road block was
not there, the accident would have been avoided.
Okunola said, “The car in which the victims were
travelling was coming from the opposite
direction and after the police had checked him,
he moved, but a trailer which was loaded with
bags of rice lost control and fell on the car.
“The truck was on top speed. The driver saw a
long queue of vehicles caused by the police
checkpoint. The driver did not want to ram into
the vehicles on the queue and veered off the
lane. That was when the car was cleared to go.
“The driver of the car saw the truck and drove
into the bush. The truck driver, however, lost
control and fell on the car.
“The driver of the car, his wife and two children,
including a baby, were all dead by the time they
were rescued from under the truck.”
He added that the victims were trapped under
the truck for close to five hours before their
mangled bodies were removed by rescuers.
A lady, who was said to have been given a free
ride by the family, was said to have survived,
but her hand was reportedly chopped while being
pulled out from the wreckage.
Okunola added that some chickens inside the
boot of the car survived the tragic accident and
flew out when rescuers opened the boot.
The Chairman of the Non Academic Staff Union
at the Osun State University, Mr. Isaiah Fayemi,
who is an in-law to the Bankoles, said the family
had been thrown into deep mourning since the
accident happened.
He called on the Inspector General of Police, Mr.
Suleiman Abba, and the Commissioner of Police
in Osun State, Mr. Abubakar Marafa, to
investigate the cause of the accident and punish
whoever was found culpable.
Fayemi said, “I learnt that the accident was
caused by a police checkpoint. We will involve
our lawyer in the case. We want the police to
investigate the cause of the accident. I was told
that two policemen had been arrested for the
tragedy.”
The Police Public Relations Officer in Osun State,
Mrs. Folasade Odoro, said investigation into the
matter was ongoing.
Also, the Sector Commander of the Federal Road
Safety Corps in Osun State, Mr. Mohammed
Hussein, said the accident did not happen within
his area of jurisdiction.
He said that the area where the accident
happened fell under the jurisdiction of the
Mokola Unit in Oyo State.
No comments: