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 said 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
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Society