A grief-stricken father, Mr. Rufus Farotimi, has called on security agencies to arrest a fleeing truck driver whose vehicle rammed into his residence at Oke-Ila, Aramoko-Ekiti, killing his son and reducing the family home to rubble.
The incident occurred on March 26, when a heavy-duty truck ploughed into the building, crushing 21-year-old Promise Farotimi to death. The victim, a 300-level Building Technology student at the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, was asleep at the time.
Speaking with on the incident, the devastated father described the double tragedy of losing his child and his home in one blow, saying the crash had stripped him of everything.
“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.
Farotimi disclosed that the driver fled immediately after the crash, while residents at the scene apprehended the driver’s assistant, popularly referred to as an operator boy.
He added that documents recovered from the vehicle, including waybills bearing a company letterhead, indicated the truck was transporting natural gypsum and identified the driver as Shuaibu Yusuf.
While acknowledging that law enforcement officers evacuated the body and commenced investigations, Farotimi lamented that the suspect remained at large three days after the incident.
He urged government to intensify efforts to track down the driver and called on the company linked to the truck to take responsibility for the destruction.
“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.
The bereaved father also decried the poor state of the road, describing it as a longstanding hazard made worse 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, blaming reckless driving and the deteriorating road condition for the tragedy.
“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.
Ogunleye recalled that similar tragedies had previously occurred in the area, including a crash three years ago that reportedly claimed the lives of two siblings.
She urged companies operating heavy-duty trucks to prioritise vehicle maintenance and deploy experienced drivers, warning that the frequency of such incidents had reached an alarming level.
Ogunleye also called on the government to urgently rehabilitate the abandoned road project and introduce traffic control measures to 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 trucks regularly heading towards Lagos-Ibadan and Kogi State.
The Police Public Relations Officer of the Ekiti State Command, SP Sunday Abutu, confirmed that the case had been transferred to the State Traffic Section for a thorough investigation, which was ongoing.
