Tension builds in Ojodu Lagos day after trailer killed schoolchildren

Violence has broken out in Ojodu, Lagos, as students and other aggrieved persons early Wednesday afternoon, December 8, 2021, renewed their protest a day after a trailer allegedly trying to escape from security operatives rammed into some students at the Grammar School bus stop, killing some of them.

While media reports put the death toll at upwards of 17, the police confirmed only two students dead and 17 others injured.

Less than 24 hours after students protesting the accident were dispersed by the police, they reconvened, this time at the nearby Lagos Sector Headquarters of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Ojodu.

Fearing possible outbreak of violence, businesses within the vicinity voluntarily shut down while the police on Wednesday morning cordoned off a filling station just meters away from the scene of the incident.

That, however, did not dissuade the aggrieved students, who have allegedly been infiltrated by miscreants.

“They are insisting on burning down the Road Safety office,” FRSC Sector Commander Femi Ogungbemide lamented in a frantic call to a radio station around 1:00 p.m.

“They have been throwing stones and some of our operatives got injured in the process of the miscreants trying to gain entry into the premises,” he added.

Ogungbemide expressed appreciation to the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command and Nigeria Security & Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) “who are on ground trying to contain the situation”.

He appealed for 24-hour protection of the FRSC office while regretting that they were being wrongly targeted despite going the extra mile to provide assistance to injured students after Tuesday’s accident.