Death of school children: Okei-Odumakin urges Lagos Govt. to unravel real cause of Ojodu traffic accident

President, Women Arise and Centre for Change, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, has called on Lagos State government to carry out a thorough investigation into the traffic accident at Ojodu area of Lagos which claimed the lives of many school children.

Dr Okei-Odumakin, in a statement made available to News Express on Thursday, lamented the untimely death of the future leaders and insisted that only unearthing the truth about the tragic incident would prevent a reoccurrence.

Reports say that on Tuesday, December 7, 2021, a delivery van, allegedly being chased by officials of Lagos State Traffic management Agency (LASDTMA) rammed into school children returning from school, causing the death of no fewer than 17students and left many injured.

The incident occurred at Ojodu Grammar School Bus Stop on Ogba-Ojodu Berger Road, Lagos.

Reacting to the incident in a statement titled “Ojodu: One accident too many!” Okei-Odumakin urged Lagos State government to strive to establish the real cause of the accident as a way to prevent future occurrence, weeping that the incident has enlarged the circumference of bloodletting in Nigeria which has become daily news in the country.

“The Ojodu incident must be the last of its kind. This can only be so if the authorities painstakingly and dutifully investigate the accident to unravel its cause or causes. Only then could a reoccurrence be avoided.

“Was it brake failure? Was the driver being pursued by agents of the state or did he simply sleep off at the wheels? The real cause of the accident must be unravelled, and the cause of justice served,” she said.

According to him, the accident at the Ojodu area of Lagos caused the death of an unspecified number of school children and caused serious injuries to many others is one accident too many.

She named Babs Fafunwa Millennium Senior Grammar School, Ojodu Junior High School and Babs Fafunwa Millennium Senior Secondary School as the three schools affected by the accident as students closing from school and trooping back home were run over by a truck.

She said that the accident has added to the long list of causes of fatalities in Nigeria, lamenting that the government appeared to have abdicated it responsibility of protecting lives and property of Nigerians.

“Life has become so cheap in the country that we wake up every day to hear of fatalities from every angle. Insurgents, bandits, terrorists, kidnappers, cultists, ritualists, avoidable accidents, criminal neglect are all sources of constant and avoidable loss of lives.

“Are we talking of the eight kids found dead in a vehicle in Lagos or of a missing child found dead in a neighbour’s compound at Ado-Ekiti or of 12-year-old Slyvester Oromoni allegedly beaten to death by other students?

“All over the country, tales of bloodletting have become commonplace. We dare say that all these painful and avoidable deaths leave much to be desired.

“Government’s first responsibility is the protection of life but Nigeria of today sadly resembles the one described by the English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, where life was nasty, brutish, and short.

“There appears a near absence of government and, to quote Hobbes again, Nigerians are in a state of war of one against all. Government having abdicated responsibility on many fronts. It is now everyone to himself and God for us all!” Okei Odumakin’s statement read in part.

“Yet, things must not be allowed to degenerate further,” she warned.

Okei-Odumakin commiserated with the families of the victims, the principals, staff, students; and prayed God to “grant them the grace and strength to overcome this irreparable loss.”