Father of pupil who died three years ago in Ondo auto crash still sees son in dreams

Time they say is the greatest healer of wounds, buut the wounds created
by the untimely death of over forty pupils of “Aricent” nursery and primary school in Olupitan area of Ore in Odigbo local government has refused to heal.

It would be recalled that sometimes in 2010, in order to enrich their knowledge, the pupils of the school which was dicovered not to have registered with the state Ministry of Education embarked on a journey to the hilly town of Idanre to catch glimpse of the natural endowment which has put Idanre among the top tourists’ centres in Nigeria.
Like every other person, the students were excited that it was a life time opportunity to visit the ancient town of Idanre.

Originally, the management of the school was planning for an inter-house sports, but the Parents Teachers Association kicked against the move and opted for
an excursion to a tourist centre.

On March 17th, 2010, the pupils embarked on a voyage to some important places in Ondo state. Numbering about fifty, the students were accompanied by their teachers and School Proprietor.

The students’ first port of call was the Local Airport in Akure before they proceeded to Idanre town. However, while returning from the journey, the vehicle conveying the hapless students collided with a trailer, crushing the vehicle and the innocent pupils in the unfortunate bus.

The pupils, teachers and the proprietor were not spared as some died instantly. Others later died at the hospital due to poor medical attention.

Three years after the unfortunate incident, residents of Olupitan are still mourning the death of the pupils, teachers and their proprietor. The school has since remained closed.

Some of the parents who lost their wards in the ill-fated crash are still enveloped in utter shock. One of them is the Chairman of the Parents Teachers Association of the School, Mudasiru Abdulsalam.

Abdulsalam, a native of Obaagun, Osun state lost his seven year old son, Yusuf in the accident. He had planned to go with the students on the excursion to Idanre for sight viewing of the natural hills, but was saved by nine day prayers which he had embarked upon.

He had been having series of nightmares seeing himself in a pool of blood. This made him to go into nine days prayers to avert the bad omen God had revealed to him.

“I was supposed to be part of the team that will escort the pupils to Idanre. As the Chairman of the Parents Teachers Association, I was to be the leader of the team.

“We had to shift the date earlier fixed for the excursion because it fell on the day the students were writing examination. But few days to the day we were supposed to go for the excursion, I started having bad dreams which forced me to change my plan”, he said.

Six days after Abdulsalam had started his prayers, the unfortunate incident happened. The Bus hired by the school collided with a trailer and some of the students of the school died instantly, while others who sustained serious injuries were moved to Ore General Hospital.

“I received a call around 7.pm from the proprietor of the school that they were in Ondo Town , and that they had a stop-over to offer prayers to Almighty Allah. He also called me after they left Ondo to tell me that
they were on their way to Ore.

“I was however shocked that after several hours , the students had not returned. It was at this point that I discovered something was wrong.

“I could no longer do anything when they did not return on time. I had to pick my prayer mat and rosary and began another round of prayer to the Almighty Allah for their safe return.

“I was afraid and worried because the School proprietor could not be reached on phone. I had to continue with my prayer when there was no response from the phone “he recounted.

However, when he finally got the wind of what happened, some students had already died in the crash. His son, Yusuf who was his fourth child was among those who died instantly in the accident.

“I cried when I saw my son in the pool of his blood. Yusuf was a brilliant boy who was loved by many people in the area because of his attitude. The poor boy was just too friendly”, he added.

He described the death of his son who was otherwise known as “Yaro’, as a very big loss to the family, stressing that his fond memories still lingered on in the family even after one year.

One strange thing is that Abdulsalam has continued to see his son in dreams. He said there is no month that the poor boy would not appear in his dream.

He said, “There is no single month that I don’t see Yaro, my boy since March 17, 2010. He always come to me in my dreams. I have done many prayers, but the dream wouldn’t stop.

“They told me that the boy is appearing to me because of the love he had for me. No other member of the family sees him except me,”

He stated that it was painful that some of the pupils who survived the accident died later because of poor treatment at the Ore General Hospital.

‘The kind of treatment those injured in the accident received was nothing to write home about. They were not given quick medical attention at all. This was responsible for the increase in the death toll”

When asked why the school has remained under lock and key, Abdulsalam said since the proprietor of the school died in the accident, there was nobody to take over.