Mrs Olorunwa Sanni, mother of Omobewaji, one of the WASSCE candidates of Seico Secondary School killed by a truck driver in Ijebu Ode, speaks to BANKOLE TAIWO about the agony of losing the 16-year-old student with a three-month-old child
Where are you from, and how old are you?
I am 51 years old. I am a native of Ijebu Ode, and I am into cap designing.
What circumstance led to the death of your daughter?
My 16-year-old daughter, Omobewaji Sanni, who was writing the ongoing West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination at Seico Secondary School, Ikangba, Ijebu Ode, was knocked down by a truck driver.
What we were told was that there were about eight of these students who were coming back home when this driver lost control and ran into these children; my daughter and one other female student, Aliyah, who was also killed, initially ran away when they saw this truck coming.
They reportedly ran into the compound of a church and hid behind the fence of the church, but this truck driver still went after them, hit the fence of the church, and killed these children.
Did Omobewaji and the other female student die on the spot?
No, the other girl called Aliyah died on the spot, but Omobewaji made it to the General Hospital, Ijebu Ode, around 11 am, where the medical personnel on duty did so much to save her life. She got four pints of blood; her wounds were stitched up and bandaged. She was then placed on oxygen.
We spent so much, but I was not bothered because I just wanted to do everything to ensure that she survived the accident. The hospital then referred us to the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, for better care, but we were told to do the X-ray of her leg before leaving. It was while we were about doing this that she gave up.
How old was Omobewaji?
She would be 17 years old in September.
Has she always been a student of Seico Secondary School or she only registered to sit her WASSCE there?
She was a student of Adeola Odutola College, Ijebu Ode, but we got to know that she was pregnant when she got to SS3 last year. She was already five months pregnant when we got to know because we had thought that she was just having malaria fever all along.
So, she dropped out, but I said that because a child made a mistake should not be a hindrance to make further progress in life.
I decided to register her as an external candidate for WASSCE in Seico School so that she could still sit the examination along with her set, even though she would have to do it in another school. As God would have it, she gave birth to a baby boy on February 2nd; that was three months ago.
What kind of a daughter was Omobewaji?
She was a very good-natured and brilliant girl. She had always told me right from primary school that she would love to study Medicine.
If you ask about her from her teachers at Adeola Odutola, they will tell you that she was indeed a promising child. Even right on the hospital bed and still writhing in pain, someone who noticed how my daughter was speaking had to give us N10,000.
He said that this brilliant girl must not be allowed to die. She was my lastborn. Unfortunately, she was barely two years old when her father died, and since then, I have been playing the roles of father and mother to her and three other siblings.
Just before she died last week, we were still drawing up plans of what she would be doing after she finished her exam. I said that I would register her in one of the private hospitals for nursing apprenticeship.
I decided she would get busy doing that, and by next year she would write the JAMB for her university admission. I have always told her that I would do my best to support her dream to be a doctor.
She even said that her choice was the University of Ilorin. I never knew it was all empty plans. Now, she’s gone, leaving behind for me a three-month-old child.
What about the driver of the truck?
What I heard before was that the driver ran away, but the motor boy was arrested.
However, it’s like both the driver and the motor boy are now in police custody.
How have you been feeling since this incident happened?
I have been so sad; it has been so horrible. The pains are excruciating.
I have been taking lots of injections, but then, I have also trusted the Almighty God to strengthen me because I need to be fit to be able to take care of the three-month-old child that she left behind for me.
How is the child doing without her mum?
The baby is fine; it is only that taking care of him has brought additional expenses. Prior to his mum’s death, he was on exclusive breastfeeding, but now we have to be giving him infant formula, which is N12,500 per one.
He is about finishing the third one; it has been through people’s support here and there because we have actually spent so much in the hospital battling to save his mum’s life.
We couldn’t have spent less than N750,000, but God proves He loves her most. If there’s anything I request, it is government support — maybe in form of scholarship for the little boy. It will really be appreciated.
Did you have any inkling of this incident?
No, I never suspected anything. After breastfeeding her baby, she took pictures as usual with him and then headed straight to school.
The ambulance that even evacuated the two girls away from the accident scene passed me by around Olisa, but I never knew it had anything to do with me.
I said some prayers to God to spare the lives of whoever they might be and continued with what I was doing. About five minutes later, I got a call that I should come to the General Hospital, that there was an accident. That was how I got to know of all that happened.
