L-R: Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; mother of Hameed (16 Year old tanker fire accident Victim), Mrs. Iyabode Bakare; and her husband, Ganiyu, during the condolence visit by the Governor, in Aramoko-Ekiti.
Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has commiserated with families of victims of the fuel tanker fire incident that occurred last Wednesday in Aramoko- Ekiti, where six lives were lost and property worth millions of Naira destroyed.
Condoling with the families during a visit to them on Sunday, the Governor described the accident as “unfortunate and uncalled for” even as he stated that heavy duty vehicles should be prevented from passing through town centres.
Dr Fayemi who was laden with emotion said government would consider constructing an alternative route for heavy duty vehicles before they can be banned from passing through town centres.
While blaming the Federal Government for failing to reimburse the Ekiti State Government for the N12 billion it spent to fix federal roads, Fayemi said the State would have embarked on the construction of Iyin-Itawure road which was awarded during the Shagari era but has been abandoned.
The governor however assured that a by-pass road would soon be constructed behind Erio Ekiti and dedicated to heavy duty vehicles to prevent them from causing unnecessary havoc to innocent citizens.
“We clearly cannot continue this way. It also brings to the fore the challenges we are facing fixing federal government roads. This state as challenging as things are for us, we are being owed more than 12 billion Naira for doing roads belonging to federal government. If that money has been returned to us, we would have embarked on the new Iyin-Itawure road which we have in our own plans and that would have taken all the vehicles away from this place so that our people can have a free access without fear of some drunken driver or break failure resulting in terrible and unfortunate death such as we have witnessed here. I think we need great cooperation from the Federal Government to live up to its own responsibilities”, he said.
The Governor who expressed worry at the rate at which heavy duty vehicles have accident on the Efon-Erio-Aramoko axis on weekly basis stated that men of the State Traffic Management Agency (EKSTMA) would be deployed to the route so as to ensure that vehicles plying the route obey traffic regulations as many of the accidents along the route were traced to overspeeding and brake failure.
Fayemi who disclosed that the only survival of the inferno is presently receiving treatment at the State Teaching Hospital in Ado also visited the parents of Ahmed Bakare, an SS2 student of Aramoko District Commercial Secondary School who lost his life to the accident.
16 year-old Ahmed, the school’s Time Keeper, was said to have gone to repair his phone at the scene before the fuel tanker lost its brake, summersaulted and caught fire, destroying houses and killing about six people.
The Governor who condoled Ahmed’s parents Mr Ganiyu and Mrs Iyabode Bakare, was sad that such a promising boy was lost to such an unfortunate situation.
The Alara of Aramoko Ekiti, Oba Olu Adeyemi, the lawmaker representing the Constituency at the State House of Assembly, Hon. Gbenga Odebunmi, Special Adviser to the Governor on Governor’s Office, Chief Abiodun Akin Fasae, and secretary of Ekiti West Local Government, Akogun Tai Oguntayo, accompanied the Governor on the condolence visit.
Last modified: February 17, 2014
