Reports
Man Who Lost Son, House To Truck Accident Cries Out For Help
By Joseph Sunday
A man who lost his son and house as a result of a truck lorry which rammed into his house, killing his son and destroying his house in the process has cried out for help.
The said man, one Mr. Rufus Farotimi, has appealed to concerned authorities, seeking for justice after a truck driver rammed into his residence, crushed his son to death and rendered his family homeless in Aramoko-Ekiti.
Farotimi’s plea followed the tragic incident on March 26, at Oke-Ila, where a heavy-duty truck rammed into his residence, killing his 21-year old son, Promise Farotimi, a 300-level student of Building Technology at the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), who was asleep at the time.
Speaking with newsmen, the distraught father described the twin loss of his child and home as devastating, saying the accident has left him with nothing.
“My son was the one killed, and I am the owner of the house. This accident has destroyed my house. I’ve lost my child and my shelter. I don’t even have clothes anymore; what I’m wearing was given to me by my younger brother,” he said.
He said the driver fled immediately after the crash, while residents apprehended the driver’s assistant, popularly known as an “operator boy.”
Farotimi added that documents recovered from the vehicle at the scene, including waybills, showed the truck was transporting natural gypsum and bore a company letterhead, identifying the driver as Shuaibu Yusuf.
While acknowledging that law enforcement officers evacuated his daughter’s body and commenced investigations, he lamented that the driver remains at large three days after the incident.
He urged authorities to intensify efforts to apprehend the suspect and called on the company linked to the truck to take responsibility.
“It has been three days, and no one has come to remove the vehicle. I am begging them to come and do what is necessary,” he said.
Farotimi also decried the poor state of the road, describing it as a long-standing hazard worsened by speeding heavy-duty vehicles. “This road is very bad and always busy with heavy-duty vehicles, and they are always speeding,” he added.
A neighbour and community leader, Mrs Caroline Ogunleye, corroborated his concerns, describing the incident as preventable and blaming reckless driving and the deteriorating condition of the road.
“Truck drivers are always speeding on this road, and the condition of the road makes it worse. Another accident even happened this morning after this incident,” she said.
She recalled that similar tragedies had occurred in the area, including an accident three years ago that reportedly claimed the lives of two siblings.
Ogunleye urged companies operating heavy-duty trucks to prioritise vehicle maintenance and employ experienced drivers, warning that the rising rate of such accidents is alarming.
She also called on the government to urgently fix the abandoned road project and introduce measures to regulate traffic and curb speeding.
“The government also needs to repair this road and introduce measures to slow down vehicles. We cannot continue like this,” she said.
Findings showed that the Ado-Aramoko-Itawure Road, a major federal route in Ekiti State, has long been plagued by heavy-duty traffic.
The road links Ado-Ekiti to Efon-Alaaye and Ilesa in Osun State, serving as a key transit corridor connecting the South-West to the North, with frequent movement of trucks heading towards Lagos-Ibadan and Kogi State.
Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Ekiti State Command, SP Sunday Abutu, confirmed that the case has been transferred to the State Traffic Section for thorough investigation, which is ongoing.