By Latiifah Amusan
In a heart-wrenching incident at the entrance of Ilupeju, a neighboring community of the Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE) in Ekiti State, a tragic road accident took place, resulting in the loss of two FUOYE Students and a bike rider.
The accident, which occurred on Friday morning, involved a trailer and a motorcycle.
The two students, identified as Passion and Oyinkansola, tragically lost their lives in the collision.
Passion was known for running a popular unisex salon and had recently graduated from FUOYE, while his sister, Oyinkansola, was a 300-level Mass Communication student at the institution.
The news of this tragic incident spread quickly on social media, with @Idris_Aloma, a student of FUOYE, expressing his condolences and confirming the identities of the victims.
He wrote, “This happened right in my school, Federal University Oye Ekiti. Passion Unisex Salon died along with her junior sister in a ghastly accident. May their souls rest in perfect peace.”
The Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps, Ekiti State, Olusola Joseph, confirmed the death of the three persons
He said,
“There was an accident along the route. It involved a bike conveying three persons and a truck. It claimed the lives of the three persons on the bike,
“The bike and the vehicle were coming from opposite directions when the accident occurred,
“I learned that the truck was descending while the bike was ascending. We have not been able to establish how it happened.
“As I speak, men of the corps are on the way to the hospital in Ado Ekiti to deposit the dead bodies in the morgue.”
This incident sadly echoes a recurring issue in Nigeria, where students often fall victim to accidents, especially those involving trucks.
In February 2022, students of Adekunle Ajasin University in Ondo State expressed their concerns on social media about frequent accidents occurring around their school gate, some of which claimed lives.
In February 2020, a graduate returning to Adekunle Ajasin University for clearance was tragically crushed and killed by a truck near the school gate, resulting in the deaths of two other individuals.
Similar accidents occurred in 2021, leading to the school’s temporary closure following a protest stemming from a fatal accident involving a Dangote Cement truck.
This tragic incident claimed the lives of at least nine people, including some university students, when the truck lost control and crashed into shops opposite the university.
As the FUOYE community mourns the loss of these two promising students and the bike rider, there are renewed calls for increased road safety measures around educational institutions across Nigeria to prevent further tragedies like this one.
Our thoughts and condolences go out to the families and friends of the victims during this difficult time.
