Nine feared dead in Ogun multiple
auto-crash
NO fewer than nine people were
feared dead and four others injured in
a multiple auto-crash that occurred
yesterday, at the old toll gate, on the
Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Sango,
Ogun State.It was a multiple-accident
involving 16 vehicles.
The first one happened at 1.00a.m.
with eight vehicles involved, while the
other crash, which
occurred at the same location around
6.00a.m., also involved eight vehicles.
The first crash was allegedly caused by
a Sinotruk loaded with Lafarge
cements, which had brake failure and
rammed into other vehicles, plunging
two of them into the stream.
Eyewitness accounts revealed that the
casualty figure would have been
minimal, but for the excesses of the
Rapid Response Squad (RRS) officials,
who were forcefully extorting money
from motorists.
It was learnt that one of the affected
vehicles, a white Ford bus conveying
yam from Sepeteri, Oyo State to
Alagbado in Lagos, that was stopped
by the police, rammed into another
during the first accident, killing one of
the two occupants.
It was gathered that the second
accident occurred a few hours after as
a result of the impact of the first
accident that was yet to be cleared
and caused by brake failure, too.
A survivor, Mrs. Latifat Olukogun,
pointed accusing fingers at the RRS
officials. She claimed that the truck
rammed into them because of the
policemen’s insistence on taking N200
instead of the N100 offered them.
She noted that the police Hilux bus
also plunged into the stream with two
of them injured, adding that they had
hurriedly removed their vehicle
“Everything that happened was
because of
N100. My partner, Iya Nimota, whose
daughter will be getting married next
Sunday, died in the process, just
because of N100.”
The Unit Commander, Federal Road
Safety Corps (FRSC), Ota, Assistant
Corps Commander, Leye Adegboyega,
told The Guardian that only five
people died and four others were
injured, including a RRS official.
He noted that his team immediately
proceeded to the scene of the crash for
rescue operations but “we had to
quickly leave the scene and went back
to the base as the commercial drivers
and miscreants at the toll gate went on
rampage, damaging all on coming
articulated vehicles, mostly trucks and
trailers, as they saw the lifeless bodies
of their colleagues.
“We contacted the Area Commander,
Sango and he mobilised seven police
teams to maintain peace and order for
the rescue operations to take place
under my watch and other police
officials.”
While noting that four injured men
had been conveyed to General
Hospital, Ota, out of which one later
died, he said the dead bodies were
evacuated and deposited at the
morgue, thus bringing the death to
five.
The FRSC boss disclosed that the sum
of N54,970, four mobile phones, a
bunch of keys and a purse were
recovered from three of the victims.
