Tanker crushes four pupils to death in Lagos

Juliana Francis

Four pupils heading to school today morning were crushed to death at the Ikota area of Ajah community in Lagos State, by a truck.

Eye witnesses claimed that a baby strapped behind her mother’s back, was also hit by stray bullets from policemen, who were trying to disperse irate youths, protesting the death of the four pupils.

The angry mob placed a blockade on the road, disrupting movement of vehicles.

According to the rampaging youths, the pupils would not have been killed, if there was a pedestrian bridge.

One of the eye witnesses explained that the victims, who were pupils of Ikota Primary School, were attempting to cross the expressway, when a water tanker with the registration number SZ 87 JJJ, allegedly speeding, ran into the children.

The four pupils died in the process, leading to protest from residents of the village.

The situation resulted in a serious disorder as the angry mob blocked the busy expressway, calling for the state governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola to visit the area, before the blockade would be removed.

The road block caused a gridlock as workers heading to different offices were stranded.

The arrival of policemen did not help the situation as one person-a baby- was alleged to have been hit by stray bullet from the guns of anti-riot policemen, who were drafted to the scene to restore law and order.

The sporadic shootings by the policemen further provoked the mob, who vandalized wind screens of both commercial and private vehicles.

Confirming the incident, police spokesperson, Ngozi Braide, said that only one of the pupils died instantly on impact with the tanker, while two others pupils were injured and had been rushed to hospital.

She said: “Today being, November, 18, 2013 at about 8am, Ajah Police Division received a distress call that there was a fatal motor accident. The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) accompanied by the Divisional Traffic Officer (DTO) raced to the scene.

“On getting there, they discovered that it was an accident involving one Blue in colour Mercedes Water Tanker (truck) with registration no. XZ87JJJ and a Black Toyota Prado SUV with registration no. CB690AKD.

“Preliminary enquiry conducted showed that while the Prado SUV gave way four school pupils to cross the road, the water tanker ran into the kids, killing one of the pupils instantly, while two were injured and currently receiving treatment at the hospital.

“Based on the foregoing, the residents, youths and indigenes got infuriated and   barricaded the Lekki/Ajah express way. They attributed their grievance to incessant accidents and lack of pedestrian bridge which they had been asking for. The situation was later brought under control as the Area Commander intervened and appealed to then not to take law into their hands, which they obliged and left the road at about 1:30pm. Meanwhile the area is calm and quiet now.”