Tragedy struck when five travellers heading for the northern part of the country were electrocuted in Lagos on Tuesday.
The incident happened around a popular trailer park called Danlami Garage close to Apapa area.
Daily Trust learnt that the travellers, mostly youths, were commercial motorcycle riders and other petty traders on their way back to the North because of the ban on commercial motorcyclists in Lagos.
Speaking to Daily Trust, one of the survivors of the incident, Zuladaini Muhammed, said they were over 45 in the truck which was overloaded with goods and heading for Nguru town in Yobe State.
He said: “Majority of us inside the truck were commercial motorcycle riders and the pressure from the police and Lagos State government was too much on us, hence we decided to go back home. Some of us that had motorcycles joined the truck with their motorcycles and paid N6500 each, while those who didn’t have paid N3000 each.
“Some of them have lost their motorcycles to police, and most of us are from Jigawa and Yobe states, and from what I learnt, the destination of the truck is Nguru town in Yobe State, but they were to drop us in Kano from where we would find our ways.
“As the driver was coming out, we realised there was an electric wire which was said to be of high tension that bends down towards the truck within the garage. As the truck was overloaded with goods and passengers, people from the surroundings were shouting; calling the attention of the driver to stop but he did not stop and one of the passengers who was with us on top of the truck pushed the electric wire up with his two bare hands and he was electrocuted instantly.
“He died together with four others closer to him. Many of us were injured and currently receiving treatment. We joined the truck as we had no choice due to the economic constraints; we couldn’t afford the transport fare for buses.”
Another survivor, Isiyaku Adamu, who narrowly escaped the incident and is recovering in a private hospital in Apapa told Daily Trust that he was together with one of the five people that died from the incident.
He said: “He is my blood brother and we were travelling to Jigawa State. This is our first time coming to Lagos; we did not even spend two months in the state. We are hawking bottled water and other soft drinks in traffic.
“We got an emergency call from our parents in Jigawa that we should come home as one member of our family has died. So we had to go there for condolences and we didn’t have much with us to join a bus, hence we took the risk to follow the truck, and we were charged N3000 each.
“What I can only remember when the incident was about to happen was when people were shouting at the driver. From there I was not in my senses. The current pushed me out of the truck into one gutter; I fell with my head while my legs were outside the gutter. What I can remember is that I saw many people surrounding me, and I tried to stand up but they said I should just relax.”
Adamu said he was unable to raise significant money from the bottled water and soft drinks he hawked in Lagos, so, he had no option than to join the truck which was very risky.
He added: “I was told that we might even spend 3 to 7 days on the road but at that time, we had no choice. I made N1500 every day from selling soft drinks, but I had to pay tax to area boys every day and what usually remained was not even sufficient to use for food due to the cost of living in Lagos”.
Speaking to Daily Trust, the Sarkin Hausawa Ajegunle, Alhaji Idris Baba Nasidi, said that they had evacuated and buried the five people that died according to Islamic rites.
Another leader of the Hausa Community in Apapa and Ajegule, Alhaji Labaran Nasidi Galadima, told Daily Trust that they took the 15 victims to a government health centre in Apapa and Lagos Island but only two who had minor injuries were accepted.
Alhaji Nasidi added that the police at the railway station in Apapa have arrested the driver of the truck.
Efforts to reach the Lagos State Police Public Relations officer, Adekunle Ajisebutu, were not successful as of the time of filing this report.
One of the leaders of the truck transport union who doesn’t want his name mentioned told Daily Trust that he personally cautioned the driver about the overload on the truck.
He said: “He loaded 700 bags of Wheat Chaff (Dusa) from flour mills and added passengers and their motorcycles. This is what led to the incident.
“I don’t like seeing people being conveyed to the North or from the South inside trucks; it’s very dangerous, but one cannot stop them as they only say they don’t have money to join buses.”
