Some irate youths in Ede, Osun State, have beaten to death an HND 2 student at the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Fisayo Olorunfemi, aka Fish, after the student allegedly crushed an 18-year-old admission seeker, Islamat Bello, to death with his vehicle.
There were various accounts of the number of lives lost in the accident, which occurred in Ita Oloki in Ede.
While residents claimed that four persons were crushed to death and the driver lynched, the police said the undergraduate killed one person and he was murdered by the angry mob.
Apart from the admission seeker, residents said Olorunfemi, who drove a Toyota Camry, with number plate, AAA 463 DV, also killed a telephone repairer, identified as Waliu, and one unidentified person.
Olorunfemi, who was reportedly lynched by the youths of the town, was said to be speeding to avoid being arrested by some security operatives after he had allegedly killed a woman in purdah with the car in the Olowo-Bida area.
The driver, who was said to be a student of Building Technology, was reportedly beaten to death at the scene by the youth, who saw the mangled bodies of those he allegedly hit.
A resident, who identified himself as Sule, told PUNCH Metro that Fish rammed into the admission seeker who was trekking by the roadside after she had sat for the post-UTME exams at the polytechnic.
Waliu and one other person were said to be on a motorcycle when the speeding car also rammed into them and flung them into a ditch.
Although the accident happened around 6pm on Monday, our correspondent who visited the scene on Tuesday saw bloodstains on the wall of a building near the scene.
An electric pole, which the car rammed into after crushing the admission seeker, had broken into two but the iron rods inside the concrete pole were seen still holding it from falling completely.
Some personal belongings of the deceased, such as slippers, handkerchiefs, as well as broken windscreen, number plate of the motorcycle, and others were still at the scene although the remains of the victims had been removed, while the vehicle had been towed away.
The Public Relations Officer of the polytechnic, Mr Sola Lawal, said he would get back to our correspondent.
The Assistant Commander, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in charge of Osun West, Mr Hussein Sanusi, told our correspondent that he was informed that three persons died in the incident.
The Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps in Osun State, Mr Peter Oke, who also confirmed the incident, said the driver crushed to death a motorcycle rider and a female passenger.
He said, “The accident involved a Totota Camry, whose driver was said to have hit a motorcyclist and a girl. The two of them died. The driver was also said to have been killed by people.”
But the Commissioner of Police in Osun State, Mr Fimihan Adeoye, told our correspondent that the accident claimed one life and the angry mob lynched the driver of the vehicle.
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He said, “One person died in the accident. The accident involved a car and a motorcycle and people took the law into their own hands and killed the poor boy.
“Efforts are being intensified to arrest those that killed the boy. It was an accident; it was not intentional, except they can establish that the boy drove intentionally to kill.”
