Eyewitness accounts said the truck carrying cement lost control due to its brakes failure and rammed into business centres and shops near the school gate.
Baring any last minute change, the National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Sunday Asefons will be meeting Aliko Dangote, founder of Dangote Industries Limited.
SaharaReporters gathered that the meeting which was facilitated by Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State is to stop NANS from further attack on the African richest man and his company after one of his trucks killed over 10 students of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko.
“The aim of the meeting is to compromise the ongoing struggle against Dangote and his trucks. Why is Asefon meeting with Dangote without the SUG President of Adekunle Ajasin University? What did Asefon know about the accident? A meeting to discuss the deaths of AAUA students, yet he didn’t inform the SUG President.
“The meeting will hold later in Lagos today without one student of AAUA, just one my brother. Who does that? Even his Senate President is not aware of the meeting. Can you cut someone’s hair without his knowledge? Fayemi facilitated the meeting, he was the one that called Dangote to meet with him and settle him. We call it scope in NANS but I think it’s bad to use the deaths of our colleagues for scope,” a senior NANS official told SaharaReporters.
A member of the Adekunle Ajasin University Students’ Union also confirmed to SaharaReporters that he was not aware of the meeting.[story_link align="left"]89373[/story_link]
He said, “Seriously, I’m not aware of any meeting, I doubt if others are aware as well. It’s a big slap on our face, that’s how these NANS guys do, they will come from nowhere and hijack a struggle.
“Why meet with Dangote on our behalf without telling us? I repeat, it’s a slap on our face and the over 20,000 students we claim to represent.”
When contacted, AAUASU President, Obagunwa Oluwa Segun, told SaharaReporters he was aware of the meeting but would not be attending.
When asked why he would not be attending, he said, “See, I’m currently not in the mood to attend to any interview, I’m very busy right now.”
However, a source close to him told SaharaReporters he got to know about the meeting last night.
“It was not even the NANS President that informed him, the info leaked to him. The school is not on session, so what is making him busy? While the family of those who lost their lives have been neglected, someone is in Lagos planning to collect money on their behalf,” the source said.
SaharaReporters had in January reported how a ghastly motor accident involving a Dangote truck resulted in the death of several people, including students of the Ondo state-owned university.
Eyewitness accounts said the truck carrying cement lost control due to its brakes failure and rammed into business centres and shops near the school gate.
“The truck which reportedly lost control due to the failure of its brakes was said to be coming from lkare Akoko and while descending the hill a few metres to university gate rammed into the business centres, shops and buildings along the roadside.
“lt crushed all the students who were busy at the business centres, the passersby and shop owners a few metres away from the main gate of the university,” an eyewitness said.
In a Facebook post, a former spokesman for the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, Joe Igbokwe, said the mother of three siblings killed in the crash also died of shock shortly after hearing the sad news about her children.
Igbokwe’s post was titled: ‘I am in deep pains and totally diminished as a mortal.'
He wrote, “An accident occurred yesterday (Saturday) in Akungba, Ondo State….these three guys were from same parents, a trailer crushed the three of them together in their shop and they all died instantly. Their mum died on the spot on hearing the news. Two of them are final-year students of Ondo State University.”
Similarly, a former Students' Union President of the university, Samuel Adesomoju, popularly known as Sampraise, was also confirmed to be one of the victims of the crash.[story_link align="left"]89589[/story_link]
According to the President of the National Association of Ondo State Students, Ayoade Kikiowo, the body of Adesomoju, a 500-level law student, was discovered in the mortuary after the crash.
Speaking to SaharaReporters recently, the brother of the deceased, Isaiah Adesomoju, decried the neglect of the family by the school management and Dangote company.
Isaiah said Samuel's death should not be in vain, adding that if his brother were to be the son of a prominent Nigerian, steps would have been taken to bring the perpetrator to justice
According to him, the family is going through a lot of pain over the loss of their first son. He said if there was anything anyone could do to get justice for Samuel, it would be welcome by the family.
He said, "It is a really sad thing for us. I am his brother and I know how I feel right now. I spoke with him that morning and all of a sudden, he is no more. It's almost unbelievable but he's gone, when he was buried, I was there.
“Nothing has been done to pursue the course of justice for my brother, no one has reached out to us, even the school management is just acting like what happened was normal. My brother was hale and hearty when he went to school. He was just in a cyber cafe checking on his project, he was in his final year in the school and all of a sudden, a truck crushed everything. It is so painful.
"No one reached out to us, Dangote company, nothing and for the school, I'll say they came, when he was to be buried. He was a unionist so they came for the burial. With some of our relatives, they brought him down here but they have not come to our house, even till now. Nobody put a call across to us. No one from Dangote.
"If there is any means you can help us, please do. My brother should not die like that. He was not only my brother but also a friend. He had a bright future. I know if my dad was a governor or minister, there would have been steps taken to get justice.
"He was a promising young man, he had a bright future. He never lost any election right from his secondary school days, he'd been a winner and he was a very brilliant guy.
"A lot is going on right now. He was the first born. I am his only brother. I knew him more than anybody, I even knew him more than my parents; he was my brother."