September 2, 2015 will remain a bad dream for the families and friends of Sulaiman Abubakar, 52, Sulaiman Umar, 50, and Camilus Umar, 27, who were crushed to death by a tanker container at Ojuelegba, Lagos. They were, until their untimely deaths, workers at one of the Bureau de Change companies in Ikeja Airport, Lagos. Abubakar and Camilus were from Kano State, while Umar was from Nasarawa State.
They were driving in a black Toyota Camry when the container landed on their car. The entire vicinity of Owo Street, Agege in Lagos, was still clouded in grief when Saturday Telegraph visited family members of the victims yesterday. They were not only in shock but still could not believe the tragedy that befell them.
It was, indeed, difficult to believe that their loved ones were gone. Speaking with our correspondent, the 19-year-old son of Umar, Binumar, said the news came to him like a joke. “I just returned home when my step mother told me that my father had an accident and died. That was the last thing for someone like me to believe.
It was difficult to comprehend because we spoke in the morning before he left the house. I told him earlier that we should go for shopping, so he asked to know the time before he left home. “We live at Omodeinde Street, Agege and I’m in my 200 level at the Nasarawa State University, studying Business Administration.
My younger ones are still in secondary and primary schools. My father didn’t play with our education because he wanted to see us becoming great in the future,” he said, sniveling. Binumar, who was downcast, likened his father’s sudden death to a bad dream even as he bemoaned the fate of his eight younger ones.
He added that his late father was everything and more to them while struggling to find the right words to describe the calamity. “My father married two wives, but I lost my mother some years ago. I want the government and good people of Nigeria to come to our aide because we have lost all that we lived for.
He was all that we had. My dad was my life; my everything. I don’t know where to start from. I’m now only looking up to God for direction. He had wanted me to study and become a businessman in future. We are four boys while the others are girls,” Binumar said. He did not stop there but described his father as forthright, friendly and one who avoided trouble.
“He was always smiling with people and very popular in our neighbourhood and among his friends. I don’t really know the full names of others who drove in the car with him. They called one Baba and the other Camilus.” One of the victim’s brother, Alhaji Issa Umar, said they were together at Ikeja, Lagos before three of them decided to go to Apapa around 12pm. “I was to go with them, but for what I was doing at the time. We were together in the office at the Ikeja Airport. They had finished what they went for in Apapa and were returning when the accident happened.”
Issa Umar said he decided to lock the office at 5pm when he did not hear from them. He never realised what happened until he got the distress call. “The last time I spoke to them they told me they were on their way to pick one of our brothers who was coming from Abuja. That one had called earlier and they all agreed to pick him.
Because of that arrangement, I felt there was no need to wait for them any longer. It was when I got home that the brother they were supposed to pick called that he didn’t see them. “So, I told them I heard in the radio when I was driving that there was an accident at Ojuelegba and that it was possible they had been locked in traffic.
But he told me the traffic shouldn’t stop them from picking their calls. That was when we became worried and started trying frantically to get through to any of them. They were three in the car and were all brothers in a way; you know that we Hausas marry ourselves. “My brother who was coming from Abuja later said he called and a policeman picked the driver’s call, demanding to know who he was to the owner of the phone. He asked us to come to Area C at Barracks in Surulere around 10pm. When we got there and explained ourselves, they broke the sad news and started consoling us.
They told us how the container fell off the trailer to kill our brothers. It was the last thing we expected to hear. “We left the police station for the scene of the accident. When we got there we met some policemen and other uniformed men. I went to the car and saw their caps and shoes. They later told us they kept the bodies at the Mainland Hospital in Yaba. We had to go and identify them that night.” At the night of the incident, Issa Umar also said they saw the DPO of the Area C Police Command, Monday Agbonika, who told them that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode was at the scene of the accident.
“The DPO said the Governor asked us to see him in Alausa, but we are yet to go there. If you look at the truck, it was obvious that it cannot carry that container. The truck is dead already; they were just managing it. “That very day, we had that another container fell along Apapa road. We have been experiencing all this for years.
If they can make a law and enforce it that the trucks should move only at night, it would go a long way to save lives. The trailers should be off the roads before 6pm. Just look at how three precious lives were wasted,” he lamented. According to him, it would be hard for them to take care of the children and wives their brothers left behind. “The father of Binumar is the breadwinner of the family. The same applies to our other two brothers. If the government could assist the children and wives of the victims, we would appreciate it.
The family members alone cannot take the burden because we also have children and other responsibilities to take care of,” he added. Meanwhile, Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, had also visited the families of the victims at Owo Street, Agege.
He assured them that the driver would not escape the long hand of the law if only to serve as a lesson to others and the general public. Camilus, one of the victims, had four children and his daughter’s naming ceremony was yesterday. He had concluded preparations to travel to Kano for the ceremony on that fateful day. He was also said to have wanted to proceed to the airport where he planned to catch a flight to Kano. They were all buried on Thursday at Agege cemetery according to Muslim rites.
