THE timing of the thanksgiving service couldn’t have been more apt. Easter Sunday, the day celebrated to commemorate Christ’s resurrection, was the day the family of Mr Oyerinde Oyelade, chose to appreciate God for saving their children, Dorcas and Fola, from being consumed in an inferno that gutted the school bus of Divine Wisdom Nursery and Primary School, Iyana Church, Ibadan, Oyo State, in 2012.
Giving his testimony at No Other Way But Christ Evangelical Church, Ilupeju, Bodija, Ibadan, Mr Oyelade said he was at work at Leadway Assurance Company, Lagos when his wife called and told him that his three children were involved in the inferno.
Oyelade said he called a friend to drive him to the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan, where he fainted and wept uncontrollably on sighting the corpse of his first daughter, Rachael.
According to him, he was urged to calm down and check on his daughter and son at the emergency ward of the hospital. He rushed there but could not also behold the sight of his children and the other pupils.
“It was terrible. The children were badly burnt, thus began the treatment which lasted four and half months at the UCH with the Oyo State government bearing all the cost. “For this I am very grateful,” he added.
At some point, Oyelade noticed that there was not much improvement, more so that five of the 12 pupils that were rushed to the hospital, died.
That was when he cried unto God for help and, according to him, he was instructed by Him to seek online for a foreign hospital that could attend to the children free of charge. And that was what he did. He got the name of a hospital in Boston, United States of America (USA), which offered free medical services for fire victims. When he called the hospital, the management did not want to have anything to do with Nigeria.
A few days later, Oyelade was in the ward while the children’s burns were being dressed. He said the Holy Spirit told him to send the children’s pictures to the hospital in Boston. Not quite 10 minutes later, the hospital called him and promised to take care of the children, three at a time.
The problem of selecting the first three beneficiaries arose. UCH, Oyelade noticed, did not want the children out of its care and so refused to dialogue with the Boston hospital. Thereafter, the hospital in Boston decided to pick the beneficiaries itself using the photographs sent to it as a criterion to determine the severity of each child’s burns.
Oyelade said he told his wife to intensify prayers as both of them knew that the burns of some of the other children were more than theirs.
To the surprise of the family, their daughter and son were numbers one and two, respectively, while a three-year-old, Divine, was number three on the hospital’s list.
It was Oyelade, who collected the visa for the three children and that of his and Divine’s mother. “I’ve not seen or heard of any visa collection easier than ours. The children were not asked to show up,” he added.
Getting the flight tickets also became an issue as the state government which had promised to assist them with the tickets was not forthcoming.
So, Oyelade called a childhood friend of his who was abroad. His friend spoke with members of his church in North Carolina and they got the flight tickets for the children and their parents.
Meanwhile, the Pastor of No Other Way But Christ Evangelical Church, Ijokodo Branch, the area where Oyelade lived, Prophet Olakunle Adojutelegan, had earlier prophesied regarding the situation. He said all through the two days’ journey to Boston, with a stopover at Amsterdam, he kept spraying perfume on his daughter’s badly burnt, heavily bandaged and smelly head.
For three and a half months, the hospital in Boston took very good care of the patients and parents. Through the help of his friends, churches and well-meaning individuals, the process of obtaining American residency permit was started and successfully completed, hence, his reason for coming back home to reunite with his wife, son and relatives in Nigeria before proceeding to the USA.
It would be recolled that on Wednesday, April 4, 2012, the school bus of Divine Wisdom Nursery and Primary School, Iyana Church, Ibadan, conveying over 20 pupils to school suddenly caught fire, leaving some of the pupils dead, other pupils and the driver critically injured.
The cause of the inferno could not be immediately ascertained, but the then Head of Operations, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Oyo State Command, Mr Oluwafemi Adekanye told the press that he suspected an electrical fault.