From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
There was pandemonium in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Monday as a tipper crushed four students of a secondary school in the sub-urb of the city, as well as a commercial motorcyclist, taking them to school.
They were students of Idito High School, Erunmu, Ibadan in Lagelu Local Government Area. Erunmu, which hosts the site of Ibadan Inland Dry Port, is along Ibadan-Iwo highway, near Lalupon.
Daily Sun gathered that the colleagues of the deceased students got angry, mobilised themselves out of impulse and staged a violent protest on the Ibadan-Iwo highway.
The protesting students, who were joined by some youth in the nearby communities, made bonfire on the road and effectively stopped vehicular movement between Ibadan and Iwo town and vice versa.
The barricade culminated into an intractable traffic logjam around Lalupon, Erunmu, Iyana-Offa, Olodo, Monatan and Iwo Road Interchange areas. Many people that could not afford the skyrocketed fare for motorcycles, had to trek long distances to their destinations.
The irate protesters, however, burnt the mini truck that caused the accident, but the driver narrowly escaped being lynched. The protesters did not stop there, as they also vandalised four other vehicles.
An eyewitness said the four students were being conveyed to the school on a motorcycle when the mini truck hit them. Though people around the place reportedly picked the five victims up almost immediately, and rushed them to an undisclosed hospital, sources said they breathed their last before getting to the hospital.
As gathered, the driver of the mini truck was trying to avoid hitting an animal that strayed to the road, before he rammed into the moving .motorcycles and sent the rider as well as the four passengers to their early graves.
A resident of Erunmu, who preferred anonymity, said: “We are not mad people. This protest is spontaneous. This is not the first time a thing like this would happen here. Many people have lost their precious lives in this area to accident as a result of over-speeding.”
Normalcy began to return to the area after officers of the Oyo State Police Command, Amotekun Corps and a special security outfit of the state, Operation Burst, were deployed to the scene to forestall further breakdown of law and order.
The Police Public Relations Officer for the state, Mr. Olugbenga Fadeyi, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), confirmed the incident, saying four students and the commercial motorcyclist lost their lives to the accident.
He added that the Divisional Police Officer at Iyana-Offa had mobilised policemen to the affected areas to restore peace and tranquility to Erunmu community and its environs.