by Oge Okonkwo

A family of three including their one and half-year-old baby and a commercial motorcyclist were crushed to death by a commercial bus known as Danfo, yesterday, along  Sagamu road, in Ikorodu area of Lagos.

According to sources, the commercial motorcyclist was conveying the family to an unknown destination when the bus rammed into them and immediately zoomed off  when he realized he had knocked them down, abandoning the victims right in the middle of the road.

Vanguard reports:

“It was a pathetic sight this morning. What attracted us was a bang and before we knew what was happening, we saw the motorcyclist, a man, his wife and their male child sprawled on the ground.  They were flung in different directions on the road.

“Another vehicle even ran over the man. To avoid further damage to the corpses, people started flagging down vehicles plying the route. Just then, some policemen from Sagamu division arrived the scene and took the bodies away,” the  eye witness, Adewusi Oladimeji said.

The policemen were said to have searched the victims, apparently with a view to ascertaining their identities. In the process,  an identity card was reportedly found on the commercial motorcyclist bearing the name Olatunji.

One of the sympathizers was said to have identified the  passenger and his wife as Mr  and Mrs Yaya Mogaji.  The unknown sympathizer who said the family was from the northern part of the country, disclosed that the one and half-year-old baby was the couple’s only child.

The bodies were said to have been removed by the policemen including the wrecked motorbike.

Police sources told Vanguard that investigation was ongoing with a view to apprehending  the fleeing driver of the commercial bus.

But the police were reportedly finding things difficult as those who claimed to be at the scene when the incident occurred were not ready to give the police clues on what they could use to effect to effect the driver’s arrest or  identify the vehicle.