Nation,ThisDay men in auto crash in Ibadan

The vehicle and the motorcycle involved in the incident

Representatives of The Nation and ThisDay newspapers in Ibadan, Oyo State, were involved in a fatal auto crash in the ancient city on the New Year day.

The sales representatives of The Nation, Timothy Adeosun, and ThisDay, Juwon Babalola, had the accident after attending the New Year eve vigil in Ibadan.

Adeosun, 23, lost his life in the accident, while Babalola sustained serious injury.

Babalola is currently receiving treatment at the Accident and Emergency Ward of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, while Adeosun’s corpse had been deposited at the teaching hospital’s mortuary.

Eyewitnesses said the accident occurred around 1.25am when a brown Acura 3.2TL saloon car, with Lagos number plate, FKJ 894 DC, driven by a young man, left its lane on Oke Padre/Mokola Road, and hit the victims who were on a dispatch motorcycle belonging to ThisDay newspaper.

The impact was said to have killed Adeosun immediately, while Babalola sustained multiple fracture.

It was said the victims had just left Salvation Army Church and were returning to their Mokola home.

One of the witnesses, who gave his name simply as Adeyara, said, “The driver was overtaking another vehicle on the road before hitting the motorcycle.”

The Divisional Transport Officer at Mokola Police Station, Oyelowo Asimiyu, told our correspondent that the driver of the car was arrested at the scene.

Chairman of the Newspapers Distributors Association of Nigeria, Mr. Babatunde Abimbola, said he received a call five minutes after the accident, describing the death of Adeosun as shocking.

He said, “Sympathisers at the scene offered assistance to take the two victims to a nearby hospital but they were referred to UCH after they were rejected by about five hospitals. They were eventually admitted at UCH after much pleas.”

Abimbola added that the incident affected distribution of newspapers for the day as vendors grieved over the death of Adeosun.

Chief Correspondent of the Nation in Ibadan, Bisi Oladele, expressed sadness on the incident, praying that God would grant the victim’s family the fortitude to bear the loss.

He also prayed for quick recovery of the injured salesman.

“Our thoughts are with the Adeosun family at this critical time. Clearly, they raised a responsible, reliable, meek and a promising man. His contributions to the company would be remembered always.” Oladele said.