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 PUNCH 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 CLICK HERE TO READ FULL AND TOUCHING NIGERIAN CELEBRITIES BIOGRAPHY AND SCANDALS
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