Residents of Idofian Community in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State have appealed to the State Government and other stakeholders to assist in raising speed breakers on Ilorin-Omu-Aran federal highway in the state.
This, the community said, would check the incessant killings of children by some hit-and-run drivers as a result of reckless driving and overspeeding.
Making the appeal at a protest staged by some youths in Idofian on Sunday following the death of a 13-year-old Senior Secondary School student identified as Elizabeth Adigun on Saturday evening by a hit and run driver, the youth leader and the Community Secretary, Hon Jimoh Abolarin, lamented that the community had lost many children to accidents in the last one year.
Jimoh who said that the community had lost at least four people in the last three months to accidents said that motorists have been driving recklessly within the township since the road passing the town is smooth.
He said, “We have lost many of our young children to accidents through reckless driving by motorists since the contractor who is constructing the road had gone beyond Idofian. I want to recall that during the last Ileya (Eid-el-Kabir) festival, three of our children were killed by these drivers who drive recklessly through the town without taking any precautions, and Elizabeth who was the last born of her family was killed yesterday.
“The girl was standing with her mother beside the road and in an attempt to cross the road, she was knocked down by a Car and the worst is that these drivers who drive recklessly and not minding that they are approaching the town will not even wait to treat the victims and see what happens to them”, the youth leader said.
Also the Iyaloja of Idofian, Alhaja Aminat Aminulahi, called on the government to come to the assistance of the people by deploying more security men to check the speed limit of the vehicles traveling on the highway apart from granting the community permission to erect speed breakers on the road.
The youth early on Sunday erected barricades on the highway and protested for several hours which caused gridlock before a combined team of police and men of the Federal Road Safety Corps arrived to clear the road.
Contact: theeditor[at]punchng.com
