Lagos Driver Crushes 5-Year-Old Girl To Death While Reversing

In what could be described as a tragedy, the driver of a Toyota Camry crushed a five-year-old girl to death in Lagos while attempting to reverse his vehicle.

Naija News understands that the disturbing accident happened in the Ijaye Ojokoro area of Lagos State.

The victim, identified as Fatima, was pronounced dead at a hospital where she was taken. Some witnesses told police operatives that the driver hit the young girl unintentionally.

However, the driver has been apprehended by homicide detectives from the Lagos State Police Command.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, verified the occurrence and mentioned that the driver was operating a Toyota Camry with license plate number FST 843 GY.

Hundeyin added that reports indicated the driver was in the process of reversing when the tragic incident took place at Adura Field.

“She was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was confirmed dead by the doctor on duty. The corpse of the little girl was released to her family, on demand, for burial according to the Islamic injunction, while the suspect and the vehicle are in police custody for investigation,” the police spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, a pregnant woman from Umuosiegbo village, Umunya, in Oyi local government area of Anambra State, Mmesoma Odili, reportedly had a miscarriage inside a police cell.

Naija News gathered that she had been in police detention for eight days and, in the process, lost her three-month-old pregnancy.

It was reported that security operatives at the Zone 13 Police Headquarters, Ukpo, apprehended Mmesoma as they were unable to locate her husband in relation to a land dispute in the vicinity.

A resident of the community, Jude Ikeanyionwu, who disclosed what transpired to journalists, expressed deep concern over the division caused by the dispute and urged the state governor, Chukwuma Soludo, and other influential individuals in the state to intervene before further loss of lives occurs.

“Mmesoma’s husband is a member of the community’s vigilante group and one of those opposed to the illegal attempt to sell our communal land by some of our elders.

“When the men of Zone 13 Police came to arrest those who do not want our land to be sold since we had shared it among the various families and they could not find Mmesoma’s husband, they arrested his pregnant wife.

“For eight days she was in detention and it was during this period that she had a miscarriage and lost her three months pregnancy. The police had to let her go when she was almost dying in detention.

“The situation in our kindred now is that those who want to sell our land by force have been harassing us with police from Abuja, such that all the men in the village no longer sleep in their houses for fear of arrest,” Vanguard quoted Ikeanyionwu saying.

He added: “We have no other land, which was why a decision was taken to share the large expanse with the various families, which has been done. It is, therefore, surprising that my uncle, who was chairman of the kindred, insisted on selling the land when we and our children have no other land to lay hands on.”