For residents of Okesa area of Ado Ekiti, Valentine’s Day proved to be a tragedy as the lives of two undergraduates was suddenly cut short when a sand truck crushed them after they had fallen in a motorcycle accident in the area.
The tragic incident was said to have occurred at about 4:00 p.m.
The bodies of the deceased has been identified as Ebenezer Ayoade, a final year Marketing student of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti and Ajayi Kayode, a 200 level Psychology student of the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado Ekiti.
According to an eye witness report, the victims rode on the new motorcycle that had collided with another commercial motorcycle near the Ado area command headquarters of the state police command.
It was learnt that that while they were helping themselves up from the road where they had fallen, an on-coming tipper lorry, which was descending the Okesa junction slope, ran over them and instantly killed one of them while the other died on the way to the hospital.
However, some people who witnessed the accident blamed it on what they described as “excitement from the brand new motorcycle.” They claimed that the deceased had hit the Okesa – Old Governor’s Office road on a high speed, and meandered through the traffic.
It was gathered that the driver of the tipper truck with registration number Abuja XN 367 ABJ, was not aware that he had crushed some motorcyclists because he kept on driving.
According to a source who pleaded anonymity, “when policemen and others stopped the driver as he was ascending the hill towards Oke Ori Omi, he was asking them why and wondered what the people wanted, until they told him what had happened.”
The driver of the truck was immediately apprehended and was taken away by the police to the Okesa Police Station.
However, police sources told newsmen that the lorry driver had been moved to the state Police Command headquarters for further investigation into the matter.
Already, posters announcing the obituary of the student of the Continuing Education Centre of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti, were said to have been posted in the school, with some of the students lamenting the tragedy.