Air Force officials on BRT lane kill Lagos artist, offer family N200,000

The family of an artiste, Ifeanyi Kalu, has been thrown into mourning after personnel of the Nigerian Air Force, accused of driving on the Bus Rapid Transit lane to navigate their way to a destination in Lagos State, allegedly crushed him to death.

PUNCH Metro gathered that Kalu was on his way to work in Ilupeju when the tragedy struck on the BRT lane along the Ikorodu Road.

His remains were said to have been dumped in a mortuary at the Nigerian Air Force base in the state.

Describing Kalu’s death as a big loss to his family, one Segun Adefila, chronicled the circumstances surrounding the artist’s death on his Facebook page.

He stated that Ifeanyi’s death occurred two months after his mother’s death, adding that the 31-year-old left six siblings and an aged father behind.

The post read in part, “Ifeanyi was a young Nigerian artiste who was diminutive in stature but gigantic in strides. His life was one huge struggle for survival without a thought for crime but through a dint of hard work.

“Born on the 15th of July 1990, Ifeanyi was the second son of his economically disadvantaged family and the fourth child. He was a major breadwinner of the family, a loaf of bread not only rarely gotten but also never buttered.

“Their mother and matriarch of the Kalu clan passed on on the 27th of August 2021. On October 20, 2021, Ifeanyin’s life was cut short on the expressway of Ikorodu Road. He lived with his aged father and 6 siblings and left them at home on that fateful day for a job he just secured.

“He was on his way to a school (Temple Schools, Ilupeju) where he was helping to teach the pupils cultural dance and music. A Nigerian Air Force vehicle traveling on a BRT lane knocked him down. Ifeanyi’s body is still in the Nigerian Air Force base mortuary.

“Ifeanyin’s mum is also still in another mortuary. His bereaved family who are definitely inconsolable at the moment also stands the risk of not getting any form of tangible compensation from those whose vehicle knocked him down.”

Efforts made to get further details from Adefila proved abortive as he had yet to respond to a message sent to him on Facebook as at the time this report was filed.

However, the spokesperson for the Nigerian Air Force, Edward Gabkwat, refuted Adefila’s claim that Air Force vehicle crushed Kalu, adding that the 31-year-old was knocked down by a commercial bus.

He said, “I can categorically tell you that what they said is contrary to what happened. An air force vehicle did not kill or crush the victim. From what I learnt, the victim was trying to cross a road and an air force vehicle that was approaching, saw the victim, and the vehicle suddenly stopped.

“The victim, who was apparently in shock at how the vehicle stopped, tried to go back to where he was coming from and I understood that a danfo vehicle crushed the victim. As an organization with responsible personnel, the personnel who were in that vehicle felt it will be out of place to see such an incident and a victim in that particular state, be ignored.

“So, they decided on their own that they needed to assist and conveyed this victim to an air force hospital and that was how the victim ended up in our own hospital. Unfortunately, it was in that process that this victim gave up.

“When the victim passed on, the family asked the air force for assistance to bury him and I understood that they came up with a sum of N500,000 and that they want the air force to assist them. The air force leadership in the base volunteered to contribute more than half of what they asked.”

Responding to the allegation of the air force personnel plying the BRT corridor, he said, “Let the traffic police determine which route was followed. As far as I am concerned, the NAF vehicle did not break the law.”

The state Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu, had yet to respond to calls made to his phone as of the time this report was filed.

(The PUNCH)