Akeem was particularly shocked by the nature of Saliu’s death, a man who was part of a combat team in a peace-keeping force to Liberia in 2007.
He said, “It’s very traumatic and it came as a huge shock. We (my father and I) joked the night before his death, only to hear the following morning that he died in an auto accident. This was a man who was in Liberia for about eight months and came back alive.
“So his death came as a surprise because he was on his way to the office. I saw him that morning, before he left home. None of us (family) would have thought that it would be the last time we would see him alive.”
Until his death, Saliu worked as a medical corps officer at the Dentistry Department of the Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Yaba, Lagos. Akeem, who was Saliu’s first son and next-of-kin, was at the hospital with other relatives to fill in the necessary papers for the release of his father’s body.
As part of the process, Akeem was allowed into the hospital morgue to see his father’s body. An autopsy had already been carried out on Saliu as the family was in a hurry to take his body to his hometown of Babanloma in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State for burial.
Islamic funeral rites demand that the dead be buried as soon as possible, on the same day under normal circumstances.
Following the experience, Akeem, who had just secured admission into the National Open University of Nigeria, seemed to have suddenly aged.
He said, “Just two days ago, I was still joking with him that I was going to travel outside the country someday and return to a warm family reception.”
Akeem declined to have his picture taken or share his father’s plans for him, describing it as ‘personal.’ He, however, stressed that Saliu’s death would be ‘greatly felt’ by the family, emotionally and financially.
Saliu was the breadwinner of the home. His wife, Alhaja Sadia, was described as a ‘successful trader’, but Akeem said his father’s death would still leave a void.
The deceased’s cousin, Abdulmalik Aremu, described Saliu’s loss as ‘very painful’.
Aremu said he fell on the ground when he was told about Saliu’s death at around 2pm on Monday.
“I fell on the ground and cried and cried. It particularly touched me because he was his mother’s only child. Though his parents are both dead now, his mother lived with me when she was old. That was why he was so close to my heart,” he said as he fought back tears and dabbed his eyes.
“I was the first person he told when he joined the army. I told him that he could go while I sort things out on the home front. I later informed our relations. We had to do that because we knew some of our relatives would not have wanted him to join the army. People used to think that joining the army was suicidal then because of the ignorance. And all along, nothing happened to him, even when he was being moved around. He was straightforward, nice and prayerful.”
Saliu’s corpse was taken to Kwara on Wednesday for burial. A military delegation went with the family to give their final respect to the Nigerian soldier, as is the military tradition.
Meanwhile, when we visited the hospital, the affected LAGBUS with serial number ‘30’ and number plate KSF60XA, was sighted on the premises of the hospital, with Saliu’s badly damaged motorcycle inside it.
Investigation showed that the military’s insistence on taking custody of the bus, pending investigations, overrode police’s attempt to move it to Alausa, Ikeja. We learnt that some military personnel suspected that the state government might want to cover up the incident since it involved its staff member.
One of Saliu’s relations said he had never seen a soldier cry until Monday evening, when some soldiers were at the deceased’s Ajegunle residence to offer condolences to his family.
He said, “Soldiers usually have stern looks. So I never thought that they could cry. But many of the soldiers that came that evening wept. No one had anything bad to say about him (Saliu); that day, I saw soldiers cry.”
Also at the military hospital, we observed as soldiers took spiteful glances at the LAGBUS -a painful reminder of their colleague’s death.
A soldier, who spoke anonymously, said the driver of the LAGBUS was ‘lucky’ that curses could not manifest immediately.
The officer said, “If curses could harm immediately, the driver would have died and the bus would have burnt on the spot by now with the way people had been raining curses on him.”
Indeed, the bus driver could have been lynched after the accident, according to a report by source.
Following the accident, the bus driver reportedly removed his uniform and fled the scene of the accident after he saw the extent of damage. Also, the passengers in the vehicle were said to have fled the scene for fear of a reprisal by soldiers.
Eyewitnesses claimed that the bus driver was on top speed when he hit a bad spot on the bridge before he lost control and crushed Saliu, who was on a motorcycle.
In recent times, residents have had causes to question the qualifications of some drivers of LAGBUS and its sister mass transit service called, Bus Rapid Transit.
For example, on Monday, November 26, 2012, six persons sustained various degrees of injuries when a LAGBUS with number plate KSF76XA crushed a commercial bus at Ebute-Ero area of the Lagos Island.
Also on Wednesday, September 4, 2013, a LAGBUS with number plate XU998AAA rammed into four cars on the Lagos Island.
On July 16, 2012, a state mass transit bus was reportedly burnt by irate youths at U-turn Bus-stop, Abule-Egba area of Lagos, after it killed a biker. The bus driver was saved from the mob by police officers who got to the scene in the nick of time.
An accident involving a BRT bus on the Iponri Bridge on August 22, 2012, Lagos, left three persons injured, including a street cleaner.
Another accident involving a BRT bus and a saloon car at Ikotun area of the state on January 12, 2013, also left three persons injured.
Saliu’s brother-in-law, Dr. Olanrewaju Jimoh, who described Saliu’s death as ‘pathetic’, called on the state government to check the recklessness of the bus drivers.
He said, “It’s a pathetic story, but we take solace in the fact that God gives and He takes because we are Muslims. We’ve heard of people dying in their sleep, so we believe that it’s his destiny. However, we believe that government should do everything possible to correct the menace of BRT and LAGBUS drivers in Lagos to avoid future occurrences.”
The Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, 81 Division, COL. Kingsley Umoh, said the military would release an official statement on Saliu’s death later, but that no legal action was being considered against the state government or the bus service.
He said, “There is nothing like that (taking a legal action), the only thing we have on the ground is to know what actually happened, but the impression we have is that the accident could have been avoided.
“The first thing we tried to do after the accident was to ensure that soldiers would not interfere because soldiers on their way to work could react, but we will have an official position later. However, we need to state clearly that we did not confiscate the bus; what we did was for immediate intervention purposes because there was a military officer at the scene who could drive the bus. The management of LAGBUS is free to come and take the bus.”
Speaking to us, the Marketing and Communications Manager for LAGBUS, Toun Gaji, said the company was sad about the accident, adding that the company organised quarterly training for drivers to prevent such fatality.
She said, “We are sad about it; it’s not something anyone will want. We are sorry but unfortunately, these things do happen. We train our drivers quarterly and we take it seriously. Customers are also invited to talk about their experiences so that the drivers can understand the customers. The drivers do medical checkups and we have breathalyzers as well. We have enforcement units that monitor and when the drivers report every morning, checks like this (using breathalyzers) are carried out randomly.”
Jaji, however, declined to comment on why the affected bus was still in the custody of the military and not the police.
She said, “Actually, the affected bus is one of our franchise buses but the case is still under investigation, so I can’t comment on it.”
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