A 58-year-old woman, Mrs. Chineze Ajoku has given a graphic account of how her daughter, Chidinma Ajoku was hit by untimely death on Sunday, July 26 in a road accident in Isolo area of Lagos amidst tears.
Chidinma Ajoku, 27, first child of the house and her male colleague Chima Nnaekpe, 29, both staff of the Commercial Department, Hajj and Cargo Terminal at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) died when a truck loaded with a 20ft container fell on a commercial bus they boarded at a bus stop.
In a video obtained by The Guardian on Friday, through his son, Mrs. Ajoku called on the authorities to check the operations of container-laden trucks in order to save lives.
“I will like to report to the public what happened on Sunday evening. My daughter, Chidinma Ajoku, and her colleague, one Chima, who both used to work at FAAN before their deaths, were returning from work and they were on a commuter bus. I think the bus stopped to pick passengers or stopped to drop passengers. Then a reckless trailer driver that was carrying a container was speeding and fell on the bus,” she said in the 13-minute video.
“I waited and waited the whole night up till 2am in the night for my daughter to come back from work. I was calling her aunty who she was staying with in Surulere. Both of us did not sleep till around 6am when a colleague called and told me that she was involved in an accident and that they were at Isolo General Hospital.
“When we got to Isolo General Hospital, they were not among those people that were brought in there. They referred us to a general hospital in Yaba and we went there and they told us to check the morgue because they did not bring any living person there. My husband’s friends and son checked the morgue and saw my daughter and her colleague.
“I will like to tell the public that this is getting too much. These containers keep on killing people and nobody talks. My daughter was 27-year-old working with the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria. She went to Babcock University and was planning to go abroad to study for her Masters degree. This is just how life has been snuffed out of her.
“I want to use this medium to appeal to the authorities to bring these people to book. They will not just keep quiet and stop the life of a promising young girl like that and a promising young man like that. Let the government do something because it is getting too much, especially in this Lagos.
“If my daughter’s life is going to be used to stop this menace, then, let it be what I have achieved this. I know that maybe they will say I am a nobody until somebody’s child is snuffed out before they do something. But I think everybody in this Lagos whether you own a car or enter public transport, all of us, our lives are in danger because we encounter all these trailers and containers every day and they are very reckless. Please, let something be done.”
It was gathered that the remains of Chidi and Chima were yet to be laid to the ground.
The FAAN management had, however, paid condolence visits to the bereaved families.