About 90 minutes after residents of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, celebrated the cross-over into the New Year, an Assistant Sales Representatives of The Nation, Timothy Adeosun, was crushed to death by an amateur driver.
According to reports, the incident, which occurred on the Salvation Army Road, affected newspaper distribution in the city yesterday, as several vendors and agents were too shocked to work.
It was learnt that the victims, who rode on a motorcycle, were returning from church when an amateur driver veered off his lane and ran into them. They were rushed to nearby private hospitals, where they were referred to UCH. Adeosun, who was bleeding heavily, died on the way to UCH. His body was deposited at the hospital’s morgue.
The amateur driver, a young boy, was driving a brown Acura Legend 3.2TL car, marked Lagos FKJ 894 DC.
Chairman of the Newspapers Distributors Association of Nigeria (NDAN), Ibadan chapter, Babatunde Abimbola (a.k.a. Ambassador), said he got a phone call around 1:30am that the late Adeosun was involved in an accident.
Abimbola said: “Surprisingly, sympathisers took them to a nearby hospital, but the hospital rejected them. Adeosun was writhing in pains, as about seven hospitals rejected them, including, at first, UCH, Oluyoro Catholic Hospital and the State Hospital at Adeoyo. They were eventually admitted to the A&E of UCH after a lot of pleas.”
He said over 30 agents and vendors, who went to the Oke Padre newspaper distribution centre, turned down the newspapers on hearing of Adeosun’s death. Many news stands in Ibadan were without yesterday’s editions of The Nation and ThisDay.
May his soul rest in peace.