LAUTECH on fire as students protest killing of three colleagues

Students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Ogbomosho in Oyo State are appealing to the government to save them from early death caused by reckless drivers.
In a Save Our Soul message by the Student Union Government executive on Tuesday, the students lamented that four students of the university have been killed since January by reckless drivers.
The students on Monday embarked on a violent protest against the motor transport union, the police and the school’s management over the killing of three female 200 Level students of the Department of Science Laboratory Technology by a “reckless” driver.
Two of the ladies were on a bike heading to their hostel to collect their laboratory coats for a practical class when a taxi ran into them from behind on Monday. The third female was hit by the car while she was walking on the road and she died instantly.
The taxi driver claimed that the brake of his car failed, which made him to collide with a motorcycle conveying the students.
According to eyewitnesses, the two ladies on the bike died on the spot.
While a the third, a pedestrian, died immediately by the roadside.
Three passengers in the taxi seriously were also injured and are said to be in coma.
The SOS sent by the Student Union reads: “Just in the first week of January 2013, a bus driver hit a final-year student awaiting his call-up letter, sending him on a journey of no-return with the excuse of a brake failure
“And just today (Monday), three innocent girls have embarked on the same journey with a taxi driver as the sender.
“These female students were killed while on their way to receive lecture. In an attempt to escape death, one of the ladies jumped off the bike and hit her head on the tarred road and died instantly. The second lady on the bike and the third lady walking by the road side died after getting to the hospital. The three students in the taxi are in coma and the motorcycle rider lost one leg and one arm. Our colleagues cannot continue to die like this. We want the government to put a stop to this reckless killings.”
An eyewitness said the students, in expressing their anger, made bonfires in front of the school gate and blocked traffic on major roads on the highway, causing traffic gridlock for hours.
The police however were able to restore peace to the area after a long talk with the students’ executives.