Tears of sorrow are still flowing freely down the cheeks of family members who are yet to recover from the shock of that day. Sympathisers are still trooping to the house to register their condolences in what they described as tragic for the children who died while going back home from school.
Mr Adesina and Mrs Idowu Afolabi had six children before the tragic accident (the wife just had a newborn baby). The two children were girls – Temidayo, the elder, was nine years old while her sister, Temitope, was six. On that fateful day, both were returning home from school, St. Thomas Aquinas Primary School located along Irona Street in Ado-Ekiti to meet their parents, but they were crushed to death by a truck driver who disappeared immediately after killing the children.
Weekly Trust gathered that the truck that caused the accident also rammed into another school bus on the other side of the road belonging to one Ben Folarin College in the state capital. As at the time of filing this report, there was no confirmation was made about what happened when the truck with registration number LAGOS XL 423 EKY, which was yellow in colour, killed the children.
The parents of the deceased children are presently staying at GRA Onigari in Ado-Ekiti, still trying to come to terms with the tragic loss of their children. Afolabi, 44 years old, who said he was not around when the incident happened on Monday, told this reporter that he was called back from his journey and informed that the accident killed his two daughters. According to him, he rushed down to the hospital, but information he gathered revealed that both children died on the spot.
He expressed his bitterness over the matter and noted that neither the police nor the state government have visited the family. He said he heard that the state’s deputy governor, Dr Sikiru Tae Lawal, who was on his way out, made a brief stop at the spot of the incident. The wife of the state governor, Mrs Kemi Oni, also visited the spot later.
When Weekly Trust visited St. Thomas Aquinas Primary School, the former school of the late Temidayo and Temitope Afolabi, the headmistress of the school, Mrs Oguntonade Mubo, expressed sadness over the death of the two children. The late Temidayo was in Primary 3 before she died. Mrs Folasade Talabi, her teacher, said Temidayo was a very hardworking and brilliant child. According to her, Temidayo swept the class after school hours that day before leaving for home, saying the girl had started showing a sense of responsibility at that tender age. In the case of Temitope who was in Nursery 2, the teacher, Mrs Florence Akinlabi, noted that the child was also very sharp academically, adding that she was already doing additions of numbers. They described the death of the two sisters as painful to the school.
Meanwhile, the police authorities in the state have revealed that the two drivers who were in the truck at the time of the accident have been arrested and are now in police custody. The DPO in charge of the Okesa Divisional Police Headquarters, CSP Chinedu Oko, said the truck has been impounded at the police station. According to him, investigations are on to know who was actually driving when the truck crushed the children to death.
Weekly Trust also found out that the children have since been buried.
