Date: 2021-12-09

A woman and her three children escaped death in Ilorin, Kwara State, on Tuesday when a container loaded with processed planks fell on their car at Offa garage roundabout.

The container, according to eyewitnesses, fell off from the trailer after the driver negotiated the roundabout on high speed. It fell on the private Mitsubishi space bus.

The woman and her three children were trapped in the bus for more than three hours before they were rescued by the combined team of the Kwara State Fire Service, Kwara State Road Traffic Maintenance Agency, Federal Road Safety Corps and the Nigeria Police Force.

A statement by the Head, Media and Publicity, Kwara State Fire Service, Hassan Adekunle, said the four victims were rescued alive and taken to the University of Ilorin Teaching.

Adekunle said, "The woman who drove the bus and her three children, a boy and two girls, were rescued alive from the vehicle. They sustained injuries and were taken to hospital.

"Mr Rasaq Jidda, the Chairman, Special Task Force to Governor Abdulrasak Abdulrahman was the one who summoned the brigade.

"Reports say the accident was caused due to the custom officers that pursued the trailer."

However, Coordinator of the Joint Border Patrol Team (North Central Zone), Nigeria Customs Service, Comptroller Olugboyega Peters, denied that the Customs patrol team was pursuing the trailer.

Peters said, "The Customs patrol team was returning to the office when the officers saw the accident at Offa garage roundabout. The allegation that the container fell from the trailer because the Customs team was pursuing the driver is not true. When the container fell, why did the driver ran away to escape from the people that wanted to lynch him? Also, the Customs vehicle was not the next vehicle to the trailer."

He however said that the accident might have been caused by speeding.