Residents protest as truck ‘crushes students to death’ in Lagos

An unconfirmed number of students are feared to have been killed in an accident involving a truck that occurred along the Ogunnusi road in Lagos.

The incident, which happened on Tuesday afternoon, is said to have led to the death of more than 10 students.

There were many students in the area as they had just closed from school not too long before the accident happened.

Some of those affected are said to be students from the Babs Fafunwa Millennium Senior Secondary School in the area, where the Ojodu Police Station is also located.

An eyewitness who spoke to TheCable alleged that the truck driver was trying to escape from some road safety officials when he lost control and rammed into the students.

“Road safety officials were the ones chasing the truck driver and while he was trying to escape, he lost control of the truck and eventually crushed the students who were coming from school,” the witness said.

“The driver escaped at first but he was later apprehended at Aguda area and he was brought back to the police station.

“When some persons who were protesting in the area discovered that the truck driver was in the police station, they asked for the man to be released to the crowd, but the security operatives refused.

“This led to destruction of properties and an attempt to attack the police station. However, the RRS operatives were called in and the protesters have been dispersed.

“The parents of some of the children who were killed also came around and they have been crying.”

Meanwhile, the Lagos sector command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has denied the involvement of its officials in the incident.

Olabisi Sonusi of the FRSC Lagos command, in a statement, said 14 persons involved in the incident were taken to the hospital.

“An articulated truck was said to have lost control at Grammar School Bus stop along Ogunnusi road, Lagos today Tuesday 7th December, 2021 which caused the death of unverified number of students and leaving many injured,” the statement reads.

“The men of FRSC were called upon by passerby to help intervene after the crash had happened. About seven (7) of the victims were rescued and immediately taken to Lagos State Emergency Centre Ojota by FRSC personnel while another road user helped in carrying about seven (7) also to the same emergency centre.

“The general public should disregard the disgruntled information been circulated by some unscrupulous element that FRSC men caused the crash. We want to place on record that our men were not in any way involved in the cause of the crash as patrol activities was not ongoing along that axis as at the time of the crash.”

According to the statement, Olusegun Ogungbemide, sector commander, commiserated with the families of the deceased.

There was also gridlock in the area for a while, and the traffic stretched towards the Ogba axis as some of the protesters blocked a section of the road with used tyres.

However, security operatives are still in the area trying to maintain peace.