Three pupils crushed to death in Ekiti

Three pupils were on Friday crushed to death by a minibus popularly called ‘Akoto’ in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital.

The pupils were killed on the day the primary and secondary school students vacated for Christmas and new year’s festivities across the state.

The incident occurred at about 2.30 pm at Ilokun, a farmstead along Ado -Iworoko road.

An eyewitness reliably confirmed to Tribune Online that the pupils were returning home from school and were about crossing the Ado-Iworoko-Ifaki highway when the vehicle, which was coming from Ekiti State University (EKSU) ran into them.

The source said: ” The victims and the injured have been taken to hospital. It was a sad incident as families of the deceased converged to weep profusely over the loss of the children.

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” The pupils were returning from their school and you know these drivers how they drive on the highway. They are many but three of them died on the spot while others sustained injuries and taken to the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital.”

It was gathered that some of the sympathisers also wept and described the incident as a disaster to the state.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, Mr Sunday Abutu could not be reached as his mobile phone was switched off as at the time of this report.

Abutu’s counterpart in the Federal Road Safety Corps(FRSC), Mohammed Olowo, said the Command has not been briefed about the sad event.

“The FRSC has not been briefed but we are going to mobilise our men to that axis to confirm what actually happened, ” he said.