Relatives relatives of the victims of the multiple auto accident which occurred near Otedola Millennium Estate along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway besieged the scene on Monday in search of clues to the whereabouts of their family members.
Mr. Biodun Abensile, was in tears as he sought to know the whereabouts of his younger brother from officials of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority, the Federal Road Safety Commission and policemen who were busy clearing burnt vehicles and other forms of debris from the scene.
Abensile said his brother, Taiwo, was billed to be in Ibadan, Oyo State, where his twin brother, Kehinde, was waiting for him.
He said, “I have been trying to get in touch with my brother, Taiwo. He was travelling to Ibadan on Sunday with his wife and his mother-in-law in a Honda saloon car. His twin brother, Kehinde, had already arrived in Ibadan and was waiting for them.
“I have made many calls to Taiwo’s telephone number; but the number has not been responding. Right now, I don’t know what has happened to them. I am finished.”
Another relative of one of the victims, who gave her name simply as Tarila, said she has not been able to reach her cousin, James, who was on his way to Benin, Edo State when the accident happened.
“As I talk to you, I can’t say where Tarila is. I have not been able to talk to him because his telephone has not been responding. I have been to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital in Ikeja and the state emergency centre by the old toll gate. I have also visited some hospitals around here (scene) and I have not had any clue.
“I came here (scene) with the hope that I may be directed to where to find him either alive or dead, but nothing positive seems to be coming from the people I have asked.”
Abensile and Tarila were not the only ones who had such stories to tell tens of others at the scene shared similar tales as they sobbed and watched the burnt vehicles and debris being loaded in batches into trucks that conveyed them to a dumpsite at Olusosun, off Kudirat Abiola Road, Ikeja, Lagos.
Unlike Sunday when the charred bodies of about 40 people that died in the accident, debris and hundreds of sympathisers were a common sight, the situation was calm on Monday as there was free flow of traffic.
Officials of Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, and the Federal Road, Safety Corps and policemen, assisted by some residents of Shangisha and the nearby Omole Estate first off loaded the industrial sugar in the burnt trailer suspected to have caused the multiple accident.
A LASTMA toll van later removed the trailer to an undisclosed location.
One of the policemen at the scene told one of our correspondents that the security officers worked all through Sunday night to ensure that many of charred bodies and burnt vehicles were cleared off the road.
“The situation was really terrible, it took the joint effort of the police, LASTMA, the FRSC and the fire service to clear the road. As you can see, traffic is now moving unlike yesterday (Sunday) when this road was impassable.”
Our correspondents reported that officials of the Lagos State Government were also at the scene to assess the clearing of the debris.
Hours after the assessment by a team led by the state Commissioner for Transportation, Bamidele Badejo, the Special Adviser to the Governor Babatunde Fashola on Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, said that no decision had been taken on the “15 burnt corpses” from the scene.
Opeifa, who told one of our correspondents that the burnt bodies had been deposited at the mortuary of LASUTH, added that 18 survivors were currently receiving treatment at the same hospital.
“Fifteen unrecognisable bodies are lying at the mortuary in LASUTH. The only way to ascertain who they were is by forensic tests. As of now, there is no decision on the burial of the charred corpses,” he said.
Opeifa also said investigations so far carried out showed that the accident had been caused by a trailer belonging to Dangote Group.
He urged Lagosians, who were yet to hear from their relatives that travelled out of Lagos on Sunday morning to report cases of missing persons to the accident and emergency centre.
However, the special adviser’s claim on the cause of the accident as well as the admission of some survivors in LASUTH differed from those of the Police and the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Dr. Femi Olugbile.
Olugbile had told one of our correspondents on Monday that no victim had been brought to the hospital.
“The information I received was that nobody was brought here (hospital). I understand that they were taken to the state accident and emergency centre,” Olugbile said.
Ealier on Monday, the authorities of the Nigeria Police Force, had denied reports that a police checkpoint caused the Sunday accident. However, they did so with conflicting statements.
The Force Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, said that police officers who were said to have manned the checkpoint were on a legitimate duty and were not responsible for the tragedy.
Ojukwu, in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents, said that the accident was being investigated.
He blamed incident on the inability of the trailer driver to control his truck when its break failed.
The FPRO said, “The policemen were doing their legitimate duty at the checkpoint and they can’t be blamed for the accident which was caused by break failure.
“The police is investigating the accident, but not the police officers at the checkpoint because they didn’t cause the accident,” he said.
However, the Lagos State Police Command on Monday, maintained that its personnel played no part in the accident.
The Public Relations Officer of the command, Mr. Frank Mba, said in a statement that the reports that police checkpoint caused the accident was untrue.
He said, “The truth of the matter is that Lagos State Police Command has no road block mounted on our highways and none could probably have been mounted on top of the bridge where the accident occurred. If policemen were on road block duty at the time of the accident, they also would have formed part of the first victims of this carnage.
“Preliminary police investigations revealed that the accident was caused by a reckless trailer driver whose vehicle had suffered a break failure.
“The trailer driver lost control, and consequently rammed through a long line of other vehicles before eventually going up in flames.
“This position was also corroborated by the report of a Vehicle Inspectorate Officer, who examined the trailer soon after the accident.
“According to the VIO, ‘the driver of the articulated vehicle drove recklessly on high speed, thereby hitting a commercial bus which went up in flames on impact.’ This led to multiple collision, ” Mba said.
The police also reduced the number of the accident victims to 15 from the 20 given by the Area H commander, Mr. Godwin Nwobodo, on Sunday.
Mba said, “A total of 15 bodies, including that of an infant, who died as a result of the accident, were picked up by the police.
“Most of them were burnt beyond recognition. Eighteen other persons sustained injuries of various degrees and are being treated in various hospitals. In addition, 10 vehicles of different makes were burnt beyond repairs, while about ten other vehicles were damaged as a result of accident.”
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