+ passengers set for battle over failure to compensate them
A Lagos based journalist, Theresa Moses, alongside fourteen others which included three children on Saturday, December 23, 2017, cheated death along Lagos-Ijebu Ode expressway, when a vehicle owned by God is Good Motors (GIGM) suffered break failure.
Our correspondent gathered that the driver of the vehicle with registration number BKW 422 XA, simply known as Captain Chinedu made frantic effort to control the bus to a nearby bush before it eventually engulfed in fire.
Investigations further revealed that as a result of the fire incident, passengers had no choice than to jump out, with others crawling out through the driver’s side and the booth.
This is because the door and windows of the affected vehicle were unable to open as of the time of the incident.
It was equally observed that the air-conditioned commuter bus which had no fire extinguisher or axe eventually burnt to ashes.
Eye witness account shows that some of the passengers alongside the driver who sustained minor burnt and injuries were taken to a clinic at Ilese village, in ogun state for treatment by the monitoring team of the transport company.
According to our findings, the commercial bus was conveying passengers to Abuja-Jos from Iyana-Ipaja Park in Lagos on 23rd December, 2017 when the accident occurred around 1:15pm.
The monitoring team however took all passengers back to Lagos where their transport fares were refunded as none came out of the burning bus with money or ATM cards.
The manager of the company at Iyana-Ipaja who wished to be addressed as Mr. Joseph was said to have made a promise to get a police report for all passengers to be able to process their lost vital document, international passports, certificates as well as compensation.
Its reliably gathered that the affected passengers made a list of their lost items in the incident and left.
But a week after the incident, the manager when contacted on phone to know the situation of things concerning the police report and compensation told the passengers to go and sort their police report on their own and that the list of the lost item for compensation were already handed over to the company’s legal department so the passengers should wait till when contacted and his job on the incident is done.
Meanwhile, a contributing editor with Sahara weekly, Mr Patrick Iwelunmor whose wife and three kids escaped unhurt from the accident has disclosed that the affected passengers have formed a group and are already consulting a Senior Advocate of Nigeria to represent them in a multi-million naira compensation suit to be filled any moment from now