I watched my daughter die in pains’
From Taiwo Amodu, Abuja
Monday, March 22, 2010


• The ill-fated bus
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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At Ore, a bustling community in Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State, this is a season of tears. And that is understandable.
On Wednesday last week, no fewer than 42 persons, many of them little kids, were killed in a road accident along the Ondo-Ore Road. Most of the dead were pupils of Arisent Nursery and Primary School, Olupitan New Site, Ore.

Since the incident, the community has been enveloped by sorrow. Sadness is boldly written on every face while the entire atmosphere is covered by a dark pall of gloom.
When Daily Sun visited the scene of the incident at the weekend, parents and relatives of the dead pupils were inconsolable.

It was gathered that 10 of the pupils of the school died instantly when the crash occurred. The rest were said to have died at the General Hospital, Ore.
Many of the grief-stricken parents said some of the pupils could have survived if the hospital had been provided with better equipment and well-trained medical personnel.

Mrs. Ajoke Oloyede, who lost one of her daughters in the crash, was weeping profusely as she spoke with Daily Sun. According to her, many of the pupils’ lives would have been saved but for the absence of adequate medical equipment and staff at the General Hospital, Ore.
The woman’s daughter, Fatimah, was one of those rescued from the scene of the auto crash. Her distraught mother regretted that she watched sadly as her daughter languished in extreme pains before eventually dying at the General Hospital, saying the victims were not given good medical attention.
Mrs. Oloyede said the poor medical attention given to the survivors of the road mishap increased the death toll from 10 to 42 as many pupils succumbed to death when their parents took them from the General Hospital to some other private clinics in the area.

She said the condition of the victims had considerably worsened before they were moved to the various private hospitals in the town for better medical treatment.
According to her, no fewer than thirty pupils of the school died because of lack of medical equipment at the General Hospital.
She said: “The General Hospital at Ore is a glorified health centre with no basic equipment. For over three hours, I watched my daughter in pains, dying slowly.
“It is not funny that only one doctor called Kazeem was on hand to attend to the accident victims. So tell me, what could one single medical doctor have done in the midst of thirty victims languishing in pains?”

She also asserted that the few medical personnel on duty showed little concern for the lives of the hapless victims who were in critical condition.
“The attitude of the workers at the General Hospital was not too good,” she said. “They were too cold to us despite complaints made by some of us. They were just looking on as if nothing had happened.”
Mrs. Oloyede also blamed the pathetic condition of the road for the accident, saying her daughter as well as dozens of other kids who perished in the accident might still be alive today if the federal government had dualised the Ondo-Ore Road.
“The Federal government has failed in its duty to give us good roads,” she stated. “This particularly road is too narrow and needs to be dualised. But the federal government has not reasoned along that line.”

However, Daily Sun learnt that too many pupils were forced into the 18-seater bus hired by the school management to convey the pupils to Idanre hills on an excursion.
An eye witness said the pupils were “packed like sardines” into the bus.
Meanwhile, the remains of the proprietor of the school, Mr. Tairu Ariyo who also died in the accident, were buried at his home town, Iree, Osun State at the weekend.
Ariyo, who also lost one of his sons to the accident, was buried according to Islamic injunctions.
It was also gathered that most of the parents whose kids died in the crash are from Osun and Oyo States.

God av mercy on us, may their gentle souls rest in peace.

Where's sjeezy and his "Hausas dont kill yoruba" theory?

Horrible!

While those pot-bellied goons walking in flowing babariga in Abuja, tear apart Nigeria's wealth like hyenas on a carcass - in the billions of naira, the people die not only from dangerously neglected roads but also from the complete lack of basic medical services.

darmilorla:

God av mercy on us, may their gentle souls rest in peace.

God CANNOT have mercy in the presence of ignorance or our failure to act! God has not and will not equip any hospitals for any country in the world, not even Israel. God will not fix roads, post officials to have roads patrolled from time to time, have emergency responders immediately dispatched in case of accidents, and the list goes on! So, God will not have mercy!

All God can and will and HAS done is to give all human beings brains and a will to do anything they want even if that thing is not on this earth but on the moon, mars. . .everything! He also gave a means to support us in addition to very smart brains. . .natural resources. . .name them! What else would anyone want God to do?

Yes, their gentle souls should rest in peace but this is the only prayer that ends all the disasters and calamities in Nigeria! Whether this prayer is heard or not, we cannot do anything about it. . .but go and visit this same area in the next 1 week, next 1 month, next 1 year or 10 years. . .would anything have changed showing that we have learnt anything from this incident? Your guess is as good as mine!

@ Post. . .I can only sympathise with the ones who are at the center of the tragedy!

CyberG:

God CANNOT have mercy in the presence of ignorance or our failure to act! God has not and will not equip any hospitals for any country in the world, not even Israel. God will not fix roads, post officials to have roads patrolled from time to time, have emergency responders immediately dispatched in case of accidents, and the list goes on! So, God will not have mercy!

All God can and will and HAS done is to give all human beings brains and a will to do anything they want even if that thing is not on this earth but on the moon, mars. . .everything! He also gave a means to support us in addition to very smart brains. . .natural resources. . .name them! What else would anyone want God to do?

Yes, their gentle souls should rest in peace but this is the only prayer that ends all the disasters and calamities in Nigeria! Whether this prayer is heard or not, we cannot do anything about it. . .but go and visit this same area in the next 1 week, next 1 month, next 1 year or 10 years. . .would anything have changed showing that we have learnt anything from this incident? Your guess is as good as mine!

@ Post. . .I can only sympathise with the ones who are at the center of the tragedy!

+1

Nigerians and God. . . . God helps those who helps themselves.

And these evil aboki needs to be punish for their act. They scream peace to cover up their evil acts. . . .

God bless their souls. So sorry.

God help us [color=#006600][[s][/s]/color]

Really painfull,Is only God dat can save us in this naija.
Let's be prayerful

Failure of leadership is no more news in Nigeria. What suprised me most wass that our leaders have no shame. This is very bad for the country. Leaders are not responsible. They perform below average, and yet they want to continue in power till they die. The same people that are short of new ideas are being recycled among the executive and the legislative arms of government. We pay tax in Nigeria, yet no road, no electricity, no treated water, nothing. Goverment in Nigeria, whether military of civilians are the same, greedy, selfish, visionless. They never trully serve the people of Nigeria, but only serve themselves and some vested interests.

See Yar 'Adua case as an example, many want to hold on to power, even it's obvious that the man is very sick. a nation cannot grow under this condition. We must change our attitude, and use the wealth of the nation to develop the nation. we stop the attitude of looting like a mad man/ woman. What did they want to do with all the money they are stealing? Can the money buy life? Of course not. we have seen very wealthy nigerians that expired, and the stolen wealth cannot safe their life. what actually is their problem?

Jonathan has opportunity to write his name in gold. Let him ignore all this charlatans and do what is right. I also advise him to seek wisdom from God. If he seeks the help of God in running the affairs of the nation, he will succeed.

And why would an 18 seater bus be carrying 42 pupils for an excursion?

Is this not carelessness and greed? I won't be surprised if the proprietor was trying to save money because these pupils are usually asked to pay for such excursions so why can't the school provide adequate transportation.

While we are quick to blame everyone but the organizers of the excursion we must realize that there are basic safety measures we can take to safeguard ourselves.

An 18 seater bus would never have killed up to 1/2 of the people that died if they had respected the maximum number of people an 18 seater bus was designed to carry.

Real pity the pupils could not say no to such treatment and more importantly parents should begin to look into the affairs of their children in schools. It is not just enough to brag about having kids in private schools or dropping them off in the morning and bringing them back in the evening that is if the school buses don't do that.

We must begin to look at the WHY and not just the WHAT so as to avoid all avoidable problems.

i unreservedly sympathise with all and sundry directly affected by this incident, and wish all in the government similar but worst fate.

God help us out from these calamities, We need prayer to survive in this country. Agreed, our leaders had failed, but God will never fail US

This is pathetic, and yet all the politicians of those places are going around having fun and spending anyhow, while no facilities for the people that hired them?

GASH, QUITE UNFORTUNATE.

So sad! Too bad!

Unfortunately this might continue to happen, until we decide to vote credible people as our leaders & ensure that our votes count.

Enough should be enough!