A 20-year-old Philosophy student of the
University of Benin, Edo State, Rita Awele,who died on Sunday as a
result of injuries
sustained in a motor accident on the Lagos-Benin
expressway has been buried.
According to the Students Union Government, she was buried on Wednesday, in an emotional service at her hometown in Delta State,
Awele was confirmed dead at the hospital
after she and her classmate, Efe Esther, were knocked down by a JTF
‘Operation Pulo Shield’ vehicle driven by a soldier.
The accident had sparked a massive
protest on Tuesday by students of the university, who attributed the
tragedy and other reported cases of road accident around the university
to the absence of speed bumps, zebra crossing signs and a flyover around
the institution’s main gate.
The
students, who grounded traffic for several hours, in their black
attire, in solidarity with their late colleagues, also demanded adequate
compensations for the families of the victims.
The SUG President, Raymond Omorogbe, told Southern City News
on Friday that representatives from the SUG, the Department of
Philosophy and the university management, were also present at the
burial ceremony.
Omorogbe, however, said that the other
victim, who had been responding to treatment at the hospital, had been
discharged and was recuperating, contrary to speculation by some of the
students that she did not survive.
But the students’ body warned that while
zebra crossing signs had been placed on the road and talks on the
construction of a flyover had been initiated by the school management,
it might resort to another round of protest if the speed breakers were
not fixed.
“As it stands now, they are done with the
Zebra crossing and for today and tomorrow, they are going to be working
on the speed breakers.
“Everything is not completely settled; we
have given them between now and Tuesday to put in place the breakers.
That is the only we will not go back to the streets,” he added.
Source: Punch Newspaper.
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