students of Lead City University, Ibadan, in December, last year, OLUWATOYIN MALIK and EMMANUEL ADENIYI, met with one of
the survivors of the accident, Mr Kayode Owolabi, at the University College
Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, recently, where he narrated his ordeal and his
new-found passion to save Nigerians through advocacy against mindless driving.
BUT for God who saved him when the hornet of death
came buzzing, his life, just like those of the five students of Lead City
University, Ibadan, would have been lost in an auto crash that occurred last
December at Ring Road area, Ibadan.
The students, four males and a lady, reported to
be returning from a night club in a red colour Toyota Camry car, drew the sting
of death, as they drove at breakneck speed under the influence of alcohol
before veering off the road, only for the car to somersault in the air, jump
over the median strip dividing the dual carriageway and hit a black BMW
conveying Mr Kayode Owolabi to a revival programme at Christ the Rock Church,
Oluyole area of the metropolis.
Now recuperating at the Special Suite ward of the
University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, the 47-year-old father of two, who
relocated to the country from England a couple of years ago, said he now knew
better that God is great.
“It was God who saved me. The accident happened on
the 7th of December last year, around 11.25 p.m. I was going to church for a
vigil programme. We had a revival; it was the last one for the year. My wife
had gone to church. I left the depot very late, because there was fuel scarcity
at the time. Actually, I didn’t know what happened, I just found myself in a
ditch with the car.
“The car’s door was opened; I came out on my own,
though feeling tired and dizzy, only to find people crying. I saw bodies
scattered on the ground, but didn’t know what was happening. I stood by the
roadside, and saw people coming to the car picking what they saw there.
Somebody was removing my jewellery and my shoes.
my jewellery, ‘what are you doing?’. He told the guy he was trying to help me,
and I heard him say, ‘but you are removing his wristwatch’ before I had a
blackout. After then, I couldn’t remember anything again,” he explained.
According to him, the guy that helped to prevent
most of his valuables from being stolen, alongside a cleric, who came to Ibadan
from Lagos for a revival programme, packed the dead bodies into the boot of his
car and brought them as well as him to a nearby private hospital, where they
were rejected. They was told to take us to the UCH, a few kilometers to the
private hospital.
Mr Owolabi disclosed that they were similarly
rejected at the UCH, having been directed to go to Adeoyo Hospital. The cleric
and the boy, he said, later brought them to the emergency unit of the UCH a few
minutes to 4 a.m.
He said after their evacuation from the scene of
the accident, his wife, who was returning home from the church vigil, saw the
accident, but didn’t notice he was involved in it. But the driver that drove
her saw it, yet said nothing.
“I described my house at Iyaganku to the boy that
assisted me. I found him sitting beside me at the hospital when I regained
consciousness a bit. He went to the house, but my wife had not arrived, so they
missed each other. It wasn’t long he left that my wife arrived at home, and
asked the gateman and kids where I was.
“When they told her I had gone to church the
previous night, and discovered that a car was missing, she quickly sent a
driver to the scene of the accident to ascertain whether I was involved. The
driver called her later that my car was involved. She went to Adeoyo; it was
from there, she came to UCH, and met me here.”
The Ekiti State-born businessman, who deals in oil
and gas, said the accident affected his neck, and that he underwent surgery
shortly after his wife arrived, noting that his neck was held back for several
days before a neurosurgeon was contacted in the hospital.
“The specialist, Professor Malomo, told us about a
new technology in the US, called Halo (brace) System Technology. We ordered for
it from Minnesota, USA, but it took six days before we took its delivery. It
arrived after the New Year celebrations. It helps to hold down the neck, and
one can move around with it. According to the specialist, mine is the second in
the country.”
The businessman, who said he lost the use of his
legs after the accident, disclosed that he was just learning to walk again with
the help of some physiotherapists in the teaching hospital, saying it was
imperative to sensitise youths in the country, commercial drivers, tanker
drivers and Nigerians to the need to avoid reckless driving as well as drink
driving.
“While lying here, I came up with an idea to float
an initiative that will bring on board neurosurgeons, traffic control experts,
myself and other experts, in collaboration with the Oyo State government, to
start going from schools, campuses of institutions of higher learning in the
state, motor parks and to many places in order to sensitise and educate our
people to the danger of reckless driving and why they should avoid
self-destruction.
“Many are dying; the neurosurgeons here said no
fewer than 20 accident victims were brought to the emergency unit of the UCH
daily. If you go to the emergency ward, you will see them there. Many have been
abandoned by their relatives for lack of money. Many are there in pains. We
need to put a stop to this,” he added.
Though he said the proposal for the initiative was
still awaiting the approval of the state governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, he
explained that the governor’s wife tried a lot for him when she was contacted.
“She came here when she was told about the
accident. When she saw the corpses of the students, she was moved and couldn’t
hold back her tears. As a mother, too, she felt for the students and their
parents.”
According to his wife, Nike, how her husband
survived was a miracle. “It was just God. You can imagine how many lives would
have been lost if the somersaulted car had hit an 18-seater bus, because it is
a busy road. Nigerians need to be told that they could end up this way, too. In
fact, doctors that attended to us said my husband was just fortunate.”
Though encouraged by the police to seek justice,
Mr Owolabi, who said, he saw “the beautiful skies and mountains, wonderful
landscape and people walking with their heads on for the first time”, after
being in a sequestered room for many days, disclosed that nothing could be
compared to being in good health condition.
