It was announced on Friday that three traditional rulers from Oyo State‘s Oriire Local Government Area had died in an automobile accident.
In another accident that occurred that same day, nine more people were reported to have suffered injuries.
Witnesses told PUNCH Online that the impacted monarchs died in a car crash at Aje Iye in the local government area involving a commercial Scania truck with registration number 301 XF and a Benz E230 with number plate OLODOGBO.
Further investigation revealed that two of the affected monarchs passed away immediately, while the third, who had been brought to the Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, died a few hours later.
One of the eyewitnesses, Olawoyin Adekunle, said, “Six passengers were involved in the crash, but the three survivors are undergoing treatment at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital. The affected passengers were going for a social function at the nearby community when the accident occurred.
“The affected monarchs are Olodogbo of Odogbo, Onibowula of Bowula and Alayetoro of Ayetoro in Oriire Local Government.”
When contacted, the state Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission, Joshua Adekanye, confirmed the incident and said, “It was a head on collision involving a private and commercial vehicles on Ogbomoso-Oyo Wxpressway. The survivors are undergoing treatment at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital while the corpses of the victims have been deposited at the morgue of the same hospital.”
In a similar incident, Adekanye also verified that, on the day in question, a truck caught fire on the Ogbomoso-Oyo Expressway, injuring nine out of the thirteen people, all of whom had varied degrees of burns. He said that while no lives were lost, the injured people were being treated at the hospital.