Sad end of three friends crushed by a car

Stories by Taiwo Olanrewaju

The vehicle and the motorcycles being towed
from the scene of the accident to the Police
station. Inset: Sunday and Dauda Abioye. They had a lot of things in common. The trio were okada (motorcycle) operators, operating from the same park at I K Dairo junction, Agodi-Gate, Ibadan, Oyo State.

Malik Abiodun, 30; Sunday, 27 and Dauda Abioye, 50; were friends. They attended functions together and had same type of clothes.

But aside from all the factors which bound them together, nobody knew that they would also be bound together in death. Death! Yes, death!

According to the fair complexion woman, who sells engine oil to the okada operators in the park, Monday, 21st April, 2008 was a black day, a bad day, a sad day and a day that would forever remain indelible in the minds of all who knew the trio.

The Chairman of the unit, Mr. Seye Olumide, said most of his members had resumed for work that morning, when the manager of one of the filling stations nearby, and a customer of Malik, asked him to take him somewhere inside the airport at Alakia area. Malik’s motorcycle, however, developed a fault on the way.

Being in a hurry, the manager alighted and chartered another motorcycle. Malik, who doubles as an okada mechanic, embarked on repairing the motorcycle at Papa junction, in the airport, close to Dekolat Block-making Industry.

Having identified the fault, he phoned his unit chairman to send down a new part, which he intended using to replace the faulty part. Unfortunately, the chairman forgot his handset at home. After a while, Malik called another member of his unit, Dauda Abioye, who promised to take the new part to him.

Meanwhile, Sunday lived in one of the buildings inside the airport and was on his way to their park at Gate when he saw Malik by the roadside. He, therefore, stayed back to see how he could be of assistance to him. And no sooner had he stopped than Dauda Abioye came with the new part.

Of course, three good heads are better than one. It was, however, not certain whether they had rectified the fault or not when the unusual and the unexpected happened. Sunday Tribune gathered that a blue coloured Honda Bluedog with plate number Lagos KK 681 KJA, speeding into the airport with the driver attending to a call on his mobile handset, suddenly left its lane, went to the other lane, rammed into the three friends who were on the other side of the road and their three motorcycles, carried them farther away from where they were repairing the faulty motorbike; uprooting the signpost of the block-making industry and breaking some blocks in the process before the car rested on its back atop a small hill there.

Corpses of the three friends were parked together in the boot of a taxi and deposited at the old State Hospital, Adeoyo, Yemetu, Ibadan while the damaged vehicle and motorcycles were towed to the Ibadan Airport Police Station at the entrance to the airport. The trio have since been buried.

Residents of the area, however, claimed that the accident was about the fourth in recent times, adding that nothing tangible had happened to the drivers of vehicles involved in previous accidents, which according to them, would have served as a deterrent to reckless drivers in the area.

Simply called Alfa, the elderly man said a jeep killed an elderly man in the area last year, while a red Primera car also killed two children, a boy and a girl, of the same parents early this year. What puzzles the residents, however, is why the police shield the drivers from the deceased families and why nobody has been charged in court.

Sunday Tribune’s efforts to speak with the DPO at the Ibadan Airport Police Station met a brickwall as he said that he was not authorised to speak to the press. He explained that the station was attached to the federal and not the state police authority. He said their Public Relations Officer was in Lagos but that he did not have his phone number.

This woman needs N.25m to survive

Mrs. Atoyebi now Until June 2007, Mrs.Yemisi Atoyebi was a healthy woman, who lived a normal life. Hers was a happy family. Though not rich, she was able to manage the meagre income she made from sewing clothes with the five thousand naira her husband earns monthly to take care of her family.

The 46-year old trained teacher turned seamstress, however, started feeling pains in the left side of her stomach and after a while, the stomach began to bulge .

Thinking that it was a demonic attack, the mother of three, two boys and a girl, took to prayers ---- fasting and going to pray on the mountain. But it seemed solution to her problem was farther away from her.

When her situation began to deteriorate and sleeping and eating became a problem, she and her husband, Mr. John Ayinde Atoyebi, a night guard in a private hospital, sought help from neighbours close to their one- room apartment.

They were, however, advised to seek medical help. With her neighbours’ help, the woman visited a private clinic, which referred her to the Catholic Hospital, Eleta, Ibadan.

After a series of tests, she was again referred to the University College Hospital (UCH), Oritamefa, Ibadan, where she underwent another round of tests, one of which caused fifty thousand naira (N50,000.00). The seamstress was eventually diagnosed of a Liver problem.

Her husband has expended all he has on her illness, the neighbours too have tried their best but everybody’s best seems not to be enough as there is no money to combat the disease. About N250, 000.00 is needed to combat the ailment.

Presently, the indigene of Ibadan is a shadow of herself. She cannot eat very well, she often experiences excruciating pain, which leaves her wide awake in the night when she is supposed to be sleeping and walking has become a problem.

According to her, she can no longer do those things which gave her joy and a sense of fulfillment as a wife and mother. She told Sunday Tribune that she loved preparing amala for her family but that is a pastime she dared not venture into and neither can she satisfy her husband sexually again, “due to my failing health”, she lamented.

Mrs. Atoyebi, however, called on Nigerians to please come to her aid. “Let all kind hearted Nigerians please help me. I don’t want to die now. I love my children and husband. I still want to be mother and wife to them. Please for God’s sake, kindly help me.”

All assistance should be directed to The Editor, Sunday Tribune, Imalefalafia or Box 78, Dugbe General Post Office, Ibadan for onward transfer to Mrs. Yemisi Atoyebi.