Auto mechanic and father of three, Kehinde Ajayi, shares with AJIBADE OMAPE how his son, Oluwasegun Ajayi, a 400-level student of LAUTECH, lost his life in an accident caused by reckless drivers

What is your relationship with the late Oluwasegun Ajayi?

Oluwasegun is my son and the first child of three. I hail from Ekiti State, and I’m a mechanic.

How did you first receive the news of the accident?

It was on the 5th of March, and I was immersed in my work at the workshop when I heard my phone ring. I picked it up, and it was a woman at the other end of the line of my son’s phone. She told me that the owner of the phone had been involved in an accident.

Upon hearing that, I immediately told her to give me some minutes to call her back. As soon as I ended the call, I phoned my wife. She told me she was still at home and getting ready to head to her shop. I told her what I had just heard and immediately asked her to meet me at Academy. From there, we quickly boarded a bus that took us to Ogbomosho.

What was your initial reaction when you heard your son was involved in an accident?

I was devastated when I heard of it because he was already in 400-level, and I was happy that he would soon round off his university education. The accident was bad news.

I felt my joy was cut short. The fact that I heard he was involved in an accident, I knew there was going to be a problem, and that was why I immediately called my wife to meet me so we could see him.

Can you describe the events that followed the accident, from when he was taken to the hospital until his passing?

Not much happened after the accident. When we got to the hospital, his friends had already done their best. They had done what little they could and had managed to gather some essential items. Upon arriving, we followed every instruction, doing everything within our power to support the situation.

Our only concern was ensuring that our son was safe and receiving the care he needed. When we got to Ogbomosho, we met his friends and colleagues from class, who told us that he had been referred to a hospital in Ilorin. His friends asked me and my wife to wait, as he might be brought back to Ogbomosho, but we told them we couldn’t wait and had to meet them at the hospital in Ilorin.

By the time we got to the hospital and were directed to his ward, we saw that he was in a coma and was receiving oxygen. By the time it was night, we were told that he would have to be admitted into the ICU. They explained the amount of money it would cost us, and we told them to proceed and that we were going to cover the cost of his medications.

What happened afterwards?

At midnight, he was transferred, and we were there with him. We made sure to buy everything the hospital asked us to buy as we were praying and hoping for his recovery. His treatment continued the next day, and we continued to assist him with prayers because we knew only God could administer the perfect treatment to him. At about 9:30 pm the next day, which was Thursday, he gave up the ghost. He did not wake up from the coma.

Can you tell us about Oluwasegun, his dreams and aspirations?

He has been a good child since birth until this time. People in the neighbourhood always spoke well of him. He is a child that I have always been proud of, and I never hesitated to brag about him outside because he always made me happy and proud.

I also made sure that he had the best education that I was not opportune to have. I did everything within my capacity to make sure he did not lack in his education, as well as his younger ones. His dream was to become successful and make his family proud, and he had always been a source of pride for us.

He was also a generous and considerate elder brother to his siblings. They loved him so much and always wanted him to be around the house; sometimes, they wouldn’t sleep without him around, and they always made sure to call him whenever he was in school because they missed him so much.

When leaving Ogbomosho, did his coursemates accompany you to the hospital at Ilorin?

We met some of them there. We were told that about three of them followed the ambulance from Ogbomosho to Ilorin, and when we left Ogbomosho to Ilorin, some of them followed us.

Were you satisfied with the medical care Oluwasegun received at the hospital, especially in the ICU?

I can’t say for sure because, by the time we had got to Ogbomosho, he had already been transported to Ilorin. So, we did not witness the care given to him over there. But when we got to Ilorin, he was already placed on oxygen, and his friends had started going about to get the things they were required to buy.

The hospital responded to him without waiting for a down payment from the family. When we got to the hospital, we also went out to get other items required the next day, and when he was transferred to the ICU, the oxygen did not stop, and he was adequately taken care of until he gave up the ghost.

Did the school or any authority provide support to your family after the accident?

We’re not sure of that because his friends brought some money for part of his treatment, but we were not sure if the money was from the school authorities or just gathered from his friends. On the day we arrived, his friends gave us N50,000. The following day, they gave us another N100,000 and N50,000, making a total of N200,000. However, we couldn’t say whether the money came from the school authorities.

There have been concerns about road safety around LAUTECH. Do you think this accident could have been prevented?

I’m not sure, but what people told me was that the place where the accident occurred is a road that has speed bumps, and cars cannot exceed a certain speed limit there.

Do you have any idea about how the accident happened?

According to his friends, my son was on his side of the road when a water tanker swerved into his lane and hit his bike. Bystanders said that there was a tricycle that abruptly stopped in front of the water tanker to pick up passengers and to avoid a collision, the water tanker swerved to the other side of the road and hit my son’s bike.

My son was riding the motorcycle and was not being driven by someone else. According to onlookers, he jumped from the bike before the tanker crushed it, but it’s possible he hit his head, and probably that was what led to his brain damage.

Was your son a commercial motorcyclist as well?

No, he wasn’t. He used the motorcycle to work as a dispatch rider. He was not the owner of the motorcycle; he borrowed it from someone to hustle. He was not expected to work at that time because he was having exams at school. I was surprised he was working at the time.

Was there any delay or lapse in the emergency response?

According to his friends, he was taken from the teaching hospital in Ogbomosho to Ilorin. We were not told how he got to the teaching hospital. When we arrived at Ogbomosho, his friends did not share any complaints as to whether he was denied medical attention or was rejected at the hospitals because when we did not meet him at the hospital in Ogbomosho and when we got to the hospital at Ilorin, we saw that he had been attended to already.

I cannot say that there was a delay in the emergency response that contributed to his death because he was placed on oxygen and taken to the ICU when he died.

What has been the impact of Oluwasegun’s passing on your family, both emotionally and otherwise?

It has affected the family seriously. If you see his mother, she looks unkempt and sad because of how distraught and devastated she has been. Many well-wishers have been coming to pay their condolences to the family because the more they visited the house to sympathise, the more the news hurt everyone.

Ever since the incident happened, she has not gone to her shop once. I have only been acting like a man and managing to go to the shop because if I don’t, then we would suffer from hunger, which is the only reason I go to the shop.

His younger ones have also been sad; the last born is still in secondary school and at home, but his immediate younger sister is at the university and was in school when the incident happened.

When the incident occurred, we did not tell them anything, and when we were at the hospital, they kept calling. We only told them that he had opened his eyes but was not talking to us yet. This was only to calm them down. Even when we came home, we kept trying to calm them down until we eventually told them he had passed on.

They were both sad, but when Precious, his immediate younger sister, came home, she cried every day and refused to go back to school. However, we had to make her go back; his youngest sibling also didn’t want to go back to school.

Did you report the accident to the police?

Before we got there, the person who was driving the vehicle had been taken to the police station and locked up. Our main concern was the well-being of our son. The morning of the next day, we asked the police to let him out so he could go source for money and pay for treatments. We also requested that they identify his residence and family to prevent the possibility of him absconding.

Have you received any justice or compensation from the authorities, or are you planning to take legal action?

When my son passed on, we did not say anything to the police again. The day after his passing, the police called to sympathise with us and asked what we wanted them to do to the culprit because they couldn’t do anything without our knowledge. We asked them to ensure he repaired the motorcycle he damaged so we could return it to the owner.

I was reluctant to respond to them at that time because I was sad, and I knew that if we had him locked up for a year, my son would not return to us. But the painful part is that, since we asked the police to release him, he did not call to sympathise with us; neither did he show up at our place.

I’m disappointed the culprit did not show up, but we leave him to God. We did not receive compensation from any of the school authorities or other relevant authorities apart from what we got from his friends, which we are not sure where it came from.

Is he still in the mortuary, or has he been buried?

He was buried the next day after he passed on. He was taken to our grandfather’s place in Ife and was buried. Some of his colleagues also accompanied us to bury him. They were all sad.