Abeokuta Expressway, Ogun State.
Among the dead were a pregnant woman; a
yam seller identified as Iya Nimota whose daughter would be having her
wedding on Saturday; five bread sellers; two policemen and motorists.
A trailer reportedly rammed into four commercial buses, three private cars and a police patrol van.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the
policemen, from the Sango Police Division, had at about 11pm on Tuesday,
stopped a bus conveying yams, and insisted on collecting N200 from the
driver.
The illegal checkpoint reportedly created a traffic snarl.
Our correspondents gathered that the
trailer, from the Lafarge Cement Company, Ewekoro, conveying hundreds of
cement bags, had a brake failure, and ran over the line of vehicles,
pushing three of them into a canal at the junction.
While the 20 casualties had been taken
to the Ota General Hospital morgue, the others were said to be in a
critical condition at the state hospital.
When PUNCH Metro got to the area around 8am, a crowd of aggrieved friends and relatives of the victims had thronged the accident scene.
A survivor of the accident, Lateefat
Olukogun, said they had encountered 10 police checkpoints on the road
and bribed the policemen at each checkpoint.
She said when they got to the Oando area of Tollgate, they met another team of policemen, who flagged down their vehicle.
She said, “All we were carrying in our
truck were yams and sacks of garri. The police never allowed us to have
breathing space as they kept stopping us on the road and collected N200
from us.
“I was the one paying them and I had
spent everything I had. I had N100 left on me. I begged the policemen to
take the money from us and allow us continue with our journey, but they
insisted that we pay the N200.
“The driver then gave his boy N500 and
asked him to go and look for change to give the policemen. The guy
crossed to the other side of the road to look for change. Few minutes
later, he returned and gave them the N200. He had barely paid the money
than we heard a loud bang.”
Olukogun said she did not sustain severe injuries because she sat next to the driver
“Iya Nimota was sitting at the back. The
trailer crushed her. The driver of the bus, however, got seriously
injured and he is in the hospital,” she said.
A relative of Iya Nimota, Rasheedat Adenekan, told PUNCH Metro that the deceased was preparing for her daughter’s wedding.
While showing our correspondent the
victim’s scarf, which was still hanging on the crushed white van, she
said the deceased was almost home when the accident happened.
“I can’t believe she is dead,” she wailed.
Another eyewitness, identified only as
Sulaimon, said the trailer started crushing vehicles from the Dalemo bus
stop, adding that no fewer than eight vehicles were affected.
He said, “The road leading to the
Tollgate area is a slope. This caused the trailer to move at a high
speed when it lost control and hit v ehicles. Three cars fell into the
canal instantly. We all mobilised to the scene to rescue the people.
“Four persons sitting at the back of a
commercial bus were crushed instantly. Three people who were selling
bread on the road were killed. The trailer broke their skulls. Three
others lost their legs. Some people in the cars that plunged into the
canal also died.
“There was commotion at that moment. Two
of the policemen waiting to collect money from the driver were among
the dead. We began to convey the injured persons into buses that would
take them to a hospital around 2am.
“We appeal to the state government to put bumps on the slope to forestall a recurrence.”
An official of the Federal Road Safety
Corps, who was part of the rescue team, told our correspondent about 12
people died in the accident.
He said, “I was sleeping when we got the
call that an accident had happened. We pulled out at least six people
from the water, dead. But I am aware 12 people died in all.”
PUNCH Metro learnt that
policemen from the Sango, Ogun State; Ijaiye, Alakuko and Alagbado,
Lagos State divisions, responded to the accident.
Meanwhile, there was a drama around 10am
on Wednesday in the area after some soldiers descended on the
policemen, including a Divisional Police Officer.
A witness told PUNCH Metro that the accident had caused a traffic jam on the road and as the soldiers were passing in their truck, they became stuck.
“One of them came down and started
controlling the traffic. A policeman suddenly came to challenge him. The
solider, who had been told that the police caused the accident, slapped
the policeman.
“As some other policemen surrounded him
and started to beat him, the soldier’s colleagues arrived and descended
on the policemen. They beat up the policemen and slapped their DPO. The
police had to run away from the place,” he said.
While confirming the incident, the Unit
Commander, FRSC Asst. Corps Commander Leye Adegboyega, said five people
were killed in the accident.
He identified some of the victims as
Richard, Kazeem and Oloyede, adding that the corps recovered N54, 970,
four phones, a bunch of keys and a purse with an expired driving
licence, at the scene of the disaster.
He said, “A fatal crash in which eight
vehicles and nine persons (seven males, two females) were involved
occurred on Abeokuta-Lagos road, at the frontage of Oando Filing
Station, Toll Gate, Ota by 12.10am.
“The crash most likely occurred as a
result of a Larfarge trailer fully loaded with elephant cements, which
had failed brakes. It rammed into other vehicles and pushed two of the
vehicles into the water.”
The Sector Commander, Ogun State FRSC,
Mr. Adegoke Adetunji, said the rescue team had to leave the scene of the
accident after commercial drivers and miscreants at the Tollgate went
on the rampage, damaging all oncoming articulated vehicles.
He said, “The Area Commander, Sango was
contacted and he mobilised seven police teams to maintain peace and
order for the rescue operations to take place. The rescue operation was
carried out under the watch of the FRSC and DPOs from nearby areas.
“The four injured men were conveyed to
the General Hospital, Ota, through the police patrol vehicle out of
which one later died. The remaining four dead bodies (two males, two
females) were evacuated from the scene and deposited at the morgue of
the same hospital by men of the FRSC, bringing the number of deaths to
five.”
It was learnt that there was another accident on the road around 6.45am, involving eight vehicles.
Those injured were said to have been rushed to the hospital where they were receiving treatment.
The Police Public Relations Officer,
Ogun State, Muyiwa Adejobi, said the accident did not involve his men in
any way, adding that the Lagos State Police Command mobilised both men
and materials to the incident.
“We didn’t have anything to do with that accident. Please contact the Lagos State Police Command,” he said.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations
Officer, Joe Offor, said six persons died in the accident, adding that
their corpses had been deposited in a public morgue in Ota, Ogun State.
Source: Punch Newspaper.
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