By Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti
People wept uncontrollably in Iworoko Ekiti in Ekiti State yesterday as the death toll in the trailer accident that occurred last Saturday night hit 15.
The accident happened in a market in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area of Ekiti State when a trailer carrying branded rice of an Ondo State politician lost control and rammed into the busy market.
Eyewitness said that the truck suddenly lost control at about 8.45 p.m and killed the victims, including a youth corps member and children.
The trailer also destroyed a commercial small bus which had some passengers, shops, and a barbing saloon with students charging their cell phones inside it all trapped in the accident.
THISDAY gathered that more students could have fallen victims but for the ongoing strike action by the Academic Union of Universities, (ASUU), which made many of the Ekiti State University students resident in the town to travel to their homes outside the town.
The scene of the bloody accident, it was gathered, used to be a beehive of activities of the students at night.
When journalists visited the scene of the accident on yesterday morning, a huge crowd of sympathisers were seen with some wailing while others are cursing the trailer driver for the mistake.
It was gathered that the trailer had crushed a small commercial vehicle called ‘Akoto’.
Bags of rice , some of which had posters of a senatorial candidate of the Ondo State All Progressive Congress (APC), Tayo Alasoadura, were scattered all over the ground.
The angry mob chased away a towing truck of the state’s transport office, saying that it had come too late to rescue the victims. They stoned the vehicle, forcing the driver to drive the vehicle away from the angry mob.
The mob also made attempt to chase away the advancing security team of the deputy governor but was intimidated by the heavy presence of heavily armed security operatives who later came to bring the deputy governor.
Addressing the chiefs of the community, the Deputy Governor, Bisi Egbeyemi, who represented the Governor of the state, Kayode Fayemi said: “The state governor condoles with families of those who have lost dear ones.
We pray for their souls to rest on peace. Government will also ensure that those who were injured have their hospital bills paid for. We will also take care of other things.
However, we appeal to our youths to calm down and not cause trouble. No one wishes for this kind of tragedy to happen. And no amount of anger and violence will bring back those dead. So, let us be calm,” he said.
Egbeyemi who also visited the Ekiti State University Teaching hospital along Adebayo area of the state capital, where the bodies of the dead and others wounded were taken to, told the doctors to begin urgent treatment of the wounded, assuring them that the bills would be paid by the state government.
The hospital management told journalists that 12 bodies of those who lost their lives in the accident, including students of EKSU have been deposited at the state morgue while four wounded victims of the accident were receiving treatment in the hospital.
