Angry Residents Besiege Police Station After Truck Crushed Couple, Others To Death
On Saturday Many angry residents stormed a Police Station in Akure, Ondo State, after a couple and one other person were brutally crushed to death in a tragic road crash involving a commercial tricycle and a truck.
The accident, which eyewitnesses blamed on reckless driving by both drivers, instantly claimed the lives of the couple, while a third victim reportedly died while being rushed to the hospital.
The truck driver, sensing the fury of an irate crowd, abandoned his vehicle and fled the scene but later resurfaced at the B Division Police Station in Oke Aro.
As news of the gory incident spread, outraged residents took to the streets and stormed the police station, hurling stones and demanding justice.
The police, in their usual fashion, responded with teargas in a desperate attempt to disperse the angry crowd, further escalating tensions in the area.
The atmosphere turned chaotic as commercial tricycle operators abandoned their vehicles and fled for safety. Several Maruwas (commercial tricycles) were reportedly impounded by police operatives during the fracas.
The mutilated bodies of the victims have been deposited at the morgue of the Ondo State Specialist Hospital in Akure.
Police spokesperson, SP Ayanlade Olayinka, also confirmed the crash and the tragic loss of lives, disclosing that the truck driver was currently in custody.
This is coming days after a grieving Nigerian father narrated how his nine-year-old daughter, Saratul Lawal, was allegedly killed by a vehicle in the convoy of Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, during her official visit to Akure, Ondo State.
In an emotional exclusive interview on Friday evening, the bereaved father recounted the events surrounding the tragic incident that has thrown his family and the Oba Ile community into mourning.
“Yesterday, I was on the road,” he began, voice heavy with sorrow. “I stood by the road and saw them when they were going to the airport to carry the President’s wife. I saw the convoy when they were coming back too. But when the incident happened, I was not at that particular spot.”
According to him, he was informed by eyewitnesses, mostly members of the Yoruba community, that a vehicle from the First Lady’s convoy crushed his daughter, Saratul.
“It did not happen in my presence. It was people who saw it that came to call me, saying one of my daughters had been killed on the road. By the time I rushed there, they had already taken her to the hospital.”
But despite the pain, the father said he could not confront the authorities or accuse the First Lady’s convoy directly.
“People were telling me to go to the government house to tell them their convoy killed my daughter. I said I can’t do that. What I did not see with my own eyes, I can’t say it was them or not. But many people, the Yoruba people, said they saw it — that it was the convoy.”
The father had revealed his daughter’s name was Saratul, a pupil of an Islamic school in Shasha, Akure. Although early reports put her age at seven, the father clarified that she was nine.
