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Pandemonium As Truck Crushes 10 Lagos Students

Published

4 years ago

December 8, 2021

Eric

There was pandemonium on Tuesday when a truck driver reportedly crushed no fewer than 10 students on Ogunnusi Road, Grammar School Bus-Stop, Lagos State.

It was learnt that the students were going home after closing from school around 2pm when the truck ran over them.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the driver of the white DAF truck was being chased by officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps when he lost control of the vehicle and rammed into the pupils, who were by the roadside.

The driver, who took to his heels after the incident, was reportedly caught at Aguda — about two kilometres from the scene of the incident — by some students and youths who accosted him and later handed him over to the police.

The truck, which was loaded with soap, was set ablaze.

A student of Ojodu Grammar School, where the victims were coming from, claimed that 17 students died, while several others were injured.

He said, “I was also at the bus stop trying to buy doughnut while the other students were trying to cross the road. Some boys had crossed earlier, so they were at the other side of the road abusing the female students for not being smart enough to cross like them.

“The students gave the truck driver a sign to wait for them to cross, but it didn’t stop and the truck crushed 17 of them to death, while some were injured.

“The driver did not wait, so other students and adults chased the driver to Ogba, where he was arrested and his truck was burnt.”

A commercial motorcyclist, who witnessed the incident, said he saw 15 dead bodies.

He said, “I have never witnessed such a terrible thing in my life. I saw 15 pupils lying lifeless on the floor. The incident occurred around 2 pm.”

A riot broke out when policemen deployed in the scene fired tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd.

Angry youths subsequently broke the windscreens of about 10 trucks plying the road and beat up one of the drivers.

Bonfires were also made on Aina Street, close to the Ojodu Police Station.

PUNCH Metro observed as several parents, amid tears, paced around the scene of the incident, looking for their children.

“I have not seen my two children. One is in JSS1, while the other is in JSS2. They are Nafisat and Abdulqowiyu Amusan. We live in Lambe (Ogun State),” one of the distraught mothers lamented.

She later called one of our correspondents back on the telephone that the children were found at the Lagos State Accident and Emergency Centre, Ojota.

Pupils were seen in groups discussing the incident, as some mentioned the names of the victims.

“I saw Sodiq lying down covered in blood. Two pupils, who were siblings, were also crushed,” a pupil, Olamide Joseph, said.

Our correspondents learnt that some of the students were rushed to the Royan Hospital, St. Timothy Catholic Hospital, and the Lagos State Accident and Emergency Centre, Ojota, among other medical facilities.

During a visit to one of the hospitals, our correspondents saw some of the injured students on the bed receiving treatment.

The FRSC, in a statement by the Public Education Officer of the Lagos State Command, Olabisi Sonusi, on Tuesday, denied involvement in the accident, adding that seven pupils were rescued by its officials, while another seven were rescued by first responders.

The statement read in part, “An articulated truck was said to have lost control at the Grammar School Bus Stop along Ogunnusi Road, Lagos, which caused the death of unverified number of students and leaving many injured.

“The men of the FRSC were called upon by passersby to help intervene after the crash happened.

“The general public should disregard the disgruntled information being circulated by some unscrupulous elements that FRSC men caused the crash. We want to place on record that our men were not in any way involved in the cause of the crash as patrol activities was not ongoing along that axis as of the time of the crash.”

The Director-General of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Dr Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, said he could not also ascertain the number of casualties.

He said, “This unfortunate incident provoked some bystanders into taking the law into their hands by attempting to lynch policemen, LASTMA officials and other first responders at the scene, destroying vehicles and other properties.

“The attack by the miscreants led the emergency team to head back to base as the scene was insecure and unsafe for rescue and recovery operations.”

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Adekunle Ajisebutu, in a statement on Tuesday, said two people died in the accident while 12 people were injured.

Ajisebutu noted that the driver, Bolaji Kabiru, had also been arrested.

He said, “Traffic personnel from the Motor Traffic Department of the Ojodu Police Division immediately visited the scene. Corpses of the dead students (identity not yet known) were removed with the support of officers of the FRSC and were deposited at the morgue of the Mainland Hospital, Yaba, for autopsy. The erring driver has been apprehended and kept in police custody.

“However, the angry students, who were later joined by hoodlums, set the accidented vehicle ablaze. They also attacked the Ojodu Police Station in their large number, demanding the release of the driver for jungle justice.

“However, when their demand was not met, they became violent. In the process, they destroyed four vehicles parked on the premises of the police station and another mobile truck on the highway.

“To avoid total breakdown of law and order, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, immediately ordered deployment of policemen comprising tactical teams, Rapid Response Squad and others to the scene to maintain law and order.

“The protesters were professionally dispersed with minimum force without resulting to any further injury.

“While commiserating with the bereaved families who lost their loved ones in the fatal motor accident, the Commissioner of Police appeals to sympathisers and other members of the public to allow the police carry out a thorough investigation and avoid seeking self help.”

The Punch

Featured

Strategy and Sovereignty: Inside Adenuga’s Oil Deal of the Decade

Published

2 days ago

January 11, 2026

Eric

By Michael Abimboye

In global energy circles, the most consequential deals are often not the loudest. They unfold quietly, reshape portfolios, recalibrate value, and only later reveal their full significance.

The recent strategic transaction between Conoil Producing Limited and TotalEnergies belongs firmly in that category. A deal whose implications stretch beyond balance sheets into Nigeria’s long-troubled oil production narrative.

For Mike Adenuga, named The Boss of the Year 2025 by The Boss Newspapers, the agreement is more than a corporate milestone. It is the culmination of a long-term upstream strategy that is now translating into hard value barrels, cash flow, and renewed confidence in indigenous capacity.

At the heart of the transaction is a portfolio rebalancing agreement that sees TotalEnergies deepen its interest in an offshore asset while Conoil consolidates full ownership of a producing block critical to its medium-term growth trajectory. The parties have not publicly disclosed the monetary value, industry analysts place similar offshore and shallow-water asset transfers in the high hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on reserve certification and development timelines. What is indisputable, however, is the deal’s structural clarity: each partner exits with assets aligned to its strategic strengths.

For Conoil, the transaction represents something more profound than asset shuffling. It is the validation of an indigenous oil company’s ability to operate, produce, and partner at scale. That validation was already underway in 2024, when Conoil achieved a landmark breakthrough: the successful production and export of Obodo crude, a new Nigerian crude blend from its onshore acreage.

In a country where new crude streams have become rare, Obodo’s emergence signalled operational maturity. More importantly, it shifted Conoil from being perceived primarily as a downstream and marginal upstream player into a full-spectrum producer with export-grade assets.

The commercial impact was immediate. Obodo crude enhanced Conoil’s revenue profile, strengthened cash flows, and materially improved the company’s asset valuation.

For Mike Adenuga, Obodo represented something else entirely: oil income with scale and durability. Producing crude shifts wealth from theoretical to realised. It is the difference between potential and proof.

That momentum was reinforced by Conoil’s acquisition of a new drilling rig, a move that underscored its intent to control not just resources, but execution. In an industry where rig availability often dictates production timelines, owning modern drilling capacity gives Conoil a strategic advantage lowering costs, reducing dependency, and accelerating development cycles. It also enhances the company’s bargaining power in partnerships such as the one with TotalEnergies.

Taken together, the Obodo crude success, the rig acquisition, and the TotalEnergies transaction, these moves materially expand Conoil’s enterprise value. While private company valuations remain opaque, upstream assets with proven production, infrastructure control, and international partnerships typically command significant multiple expansion. For Adenuga, all of these represents a stabilising and appreciating pillar of wealth.

As The Boss Newspapers honours Mike Adenuga as Boss of the Year 2025, the recognition lands at a moment when his oil ambitions are no longer peripheral to his legacy. They are central. In Obodo crude, in steel rigs, and in carefully negotiated partnerships, Adenuga is shaping a version of Nigerian capitalism that privileges patience, scale, and execution over spectacle.

In the end, the most powerful statement of wealth is not net worth rankings or headlines. It is the ability to convert strategy into assets, assets into production, and production into national relevance. On that score, the Conoil–TotalEnergies deal may well stand as one of the most consequential chapters in Mike Adenuga’s business story and in Nigeria’s evolving oil future.

Featured

Peter Obi, Only Life in ADC, Says Fayose

Published

3 days ago

January 10, 2026

Eric

Former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, says the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, is the only life in the African Democratic Congress, ADC.

Fayose made this statement on Friday while fielding questions in an interview on ‘Politics Today’, a programme on Channels Television.

He also said that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is technically no more, adding that it is dead.

The former governor equally said that Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, should not be dragged into the woes of the PDP.

He said: “Obi is the only life in ADC; all other people in ADC are semi-existent. If Obi had remained in Labour Party or has gone to Accord Party, he is the only life there. All the other people there, they are not existing. They are old-forces.

“Openly, I supported Tinubu in 2023. I didn’t hide it. Till now I’m still there. I don’t jump. I have said it to you I’m not a member of APC and I will never be.”

DailyPost

Featured

More Troubles for Ahmed Farouk: Dangote Drags Ex-NMDPRA Boss to EFCC over Corruption Claims

Published

4 days ago

January 9, 2026

Eric

The Chairman of Dangote Industries, Aliko Dangote, through his legal representative, has filed a formal corruption petition against the former Managing Director of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, at the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

This was disclosed in a statement made available to our correspondent by the Dangote Group media team on Friday.

Recall that Dangote had earlier petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to investigate Ahmed for allegedly spending $5 million on his children’s secondary education in Switzerland. He withdrew the petition a few days ago, even as the ICPC vowed to continue with its investigation.

The statement on Friday said Dangote’s petition to the EFCC followed “The withdrawal of the same petition from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, a strategic decision aimed at accelerating the prosecution process.”

In the petition, signed by Lead Counsel Dr O.J. Onoja, Dangote urged the EFCC to investigate allegations of abuse of office and corrupt enrichment against Ahmed, and to prosecute him if found culpable.

The petition further stated that Dangote would provide evidence to substantiate claims of financial misconduct and impunity.

“We make bold to state that the commission is strategically positioned, along with sister agencies, to prosecute financial crimes and corruption-related offences, and upon establishing a prima facie case, the courts do not hesitate to punish offenders. See Lawan v. F.R.N (2024) 12 NWLR (Pt. 1953) 501 and Shema v. F.R.N. (2018) 9 NWLR (Pt.1624) 337,” the petition read.

Onoja further urged the commission, under the leadership of Mr Olanipekun Olukoyede, “To investigate the complaint of abuse of office and corruption against Engr. Farouk Ahmed and to accordingly prosecute him if found wanting.”