Thousands of protesting Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), students seized the Sagamu-Ilisan stretch of the Lagos-Ore expressway as they protested at the scene of a ghastly accident that claimed the lives of 12 students of the institution.
The students were crushed to death and others severely injured on Friday when a container fell on a passenger bus carrying the students in Ago-Iwoye, Osun state.
The truck was driving against the traffic and in a bid to avoid a barrier at the Sagamu stretch of the Lagos/Benin expressway, the container it carried tipped over and fell on top of the bus.
The accident occurred few meters away from the gate of a plastic manufacturing company close to the Ilisha Remo junction.
The protesting students halted traffic on both sides of the expressway causing many drivers to turn back. They threatened to stone any truck carrying a container.
The students arrived at the scene in four buses and three cars to pray for their dead colleagues. In emotional scenes they cried, screamed and rained curses on the driver who they held responsible for the deaths.
Police, members of the Federal Road Safety Corps and operatives of Ogun state’s traffic agency made unsuccessful efforts to contain the protesters.
They marched to the site of a factory beside the expressway a few meters away from the where the accident occurred, which they suspected to own the container responsible. The company had to shut down briefly in fear of the students who seemed about to launch an attack but armed police assigned to its gate prevented them from advancing.
The OOU students were reportedly travelling to Lagos state for the weekend when they were killed.
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There was a reported case of another tanker crash that occurred in Kebbi state recently.
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