Mother says accident victim absconded from home

isaac

February 19, 2015 12:04 PM

The mother of the St Nicholas Hospital accident victim says the boy actually absconded from home in search of money to register for his GCE.

Owolabi Oladunjoye, the 19-year-old accident victim who was in a coma for over two weeks at the St Nicholas Hospital, Lagos, before he snapped out and finally reunited with his mother, actually ran away from home and became a bus conductor in Oshodi.

This much was revealed by his mother, Rahmot, who said that the family too had been on the hunt for him just as the hospital had impressed on Nigerians to help locate the boy's family.

His mother, while commending the hospital for taking care of her son without collecting a dime, said that Oladunjoye who was about to sit for his secondary school final examinations, ran away from home in January 2015, after collecting N200 from her on the pretext that he was going to Ile Ife.

The mother of five further revealed:

"His father died in 1994. He raises funds for his education, doing menial jobs. But on January 4, 2015, he said he wanted to travel to work and needed transport money.

The next day, I gave him N200. He said it was not enough, but I told him to manage it. He and his friend then vanished.

The next time I called him, I was hearing ‘Obalende, Oshodi’ at the background and when I queried him, he quickly cut off the phone.

I called back, and he begged me to forgive him that if I knew he was coming to Lagos, I would not allow him.

He promised to return three days later, but suddenly, he became unreachable as he lost his phone. I came to Lagos to look for him after I didn’t hear from him three days later."

She said it was while waiting anxiously for his return that she learnt of the accident on the radio.

On his reasons for absconding, Oladunjoye said:

"I ran away from home because I needed to raise money. I want to return to school once I leave here.

I was a bus conductor in the vehicle that had accident and we were going to Oshodi."

Oladunjoye was involved in a fatal accident on the Third Mainland Bridge on Friday, January 23, 2015, and was rushed to the medical facility where he was in a coma for weeks before he was revived.

isaac