Johnson Olawale Ikudayisi and Temitope Orebe are student leaders from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. When they set out to their home state, Ekiti to sort things out concerning their colleagues’ bursary and scholarship scheme, they had no idea that they would be involved in an accident that would nearly claim their lives.
Johnson, popularly called ‘Ekiti’ is always interested in anything that concerns his state and had, in the past, held many positions in the Federation of Ekiti State Students Union, FESSU, and was two term SRC members in the OAU Students’ Representatives Council. The 500 level Dentistry student is the chairman of FESSU electoral committee. Orebe, on the other hand, a 400 level law student, is the number one Ekiti State student on OAU campus.
Three weeks into the new session, they duo embarked on a journey to Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital to meet officials of the State Scholarship Board and the State Governor. They had no premonition of the accident. Upon the successful meeting with their hosts, they boarded a commercial bus at Ado enroute Ife. Twenty-minutes into the journey, exactly at Igede-Ekiti, their bus somersaulted and ran into an electric pole; it fell on the bus.
Narrating the incident, Ikudayaisi said he was typing a message on his phone when “we heard a loud sound and that was the end. A power line fell on the bus and we were not electrocuted. I shouted blood of Jesus. We were 15 in the bus. How we escaped is still a mystery to us! We couldn’t fathom if it was technical or over speeding.”
He noted that he was in shock before Orebe organized for a cab to take them to the nearest hospital –Ekiti State General Hospital at Iyin (Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government). “We were initially given first aid treatment.”
He said that as at the time they left the scene of the incident and the hospital, some passengers were in coma and they left for Ife that same night.
On the lesson he learnt, Ekiti said that he will move closer to God now that he has been saved. He added that he now know that a supreme being that controls the affairs of the universe exists.
He advised the officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission to rid the roads of some bad buses who are not road worthy. “it puts the lives of the innocent Nigerian citizens in danger.
He urged government, at all levels, to repair and construct old and new roads respectively. The drivers, he advised, should be made to undergo some specific trainings before they should be given driving license and periodic training for their staffs.
