How A Man Helped An Accident Victim And Ended Up Regretting

I read stories like this, and I weep for this country and how terrible we are to one another.

My dad is a delivery person so he owns a bus, this is what he used to train me in school, i just finished uni ma, i defend my project this year May.

According to him he was driving in the early hours between 4:30 to 5am on Wednesday 4th of September 2024, Atan Iju road in Ogun state, then slowed down when he saw a man with a bike coming with speed towards him on one way, this man hit and slide into a big heap of sand which raised the bike so high that when he landed to the ground his bike broke and slide towards my dad’s front bumper, which caused a dent.

On getting out of his bus to check what has happened he saw that the man was a few metres away from him on the road bleeding from his head, and mouth, truck drivers and passerby advised him to leave the accident victim alone and go, but he decided to see how i can help him so he wouldn’t die. That was when he called us at home that someone had an accident in front of him that he wanted to rush him to the hospital, that was around 5-6am. We kept calling him to know how far it was going. I even wanted to tell my dad to leave him and continue in his journey but knowing him and his good heart he will not listen.

He tried all he could from 5am until 6am and he couldn’t get any help from both journey but drivers, bike men and passerbys to help him get the accident victim to the hospital, cos he was updating us. One of the truck drivers advised he go the nearest police station which was in the same iju to make a report which he did, a police man followed him to the location and then they were able to see a keke man after time has been lost that carried my dad and the policeman as well as the accident victim to a general hospital. On getting to the hospital the said man gave up the ghost. In turn my dad was arrested and detained and charged with Traffic Accident.

Please My dad is a licensed driver and has been driving before i was born, with over 20 years of experience and this is the first time i am experiencing such, the harassment from the police yesterday Friday was too much for me and my mum. This matter has made my mum sick.

He was taken to another station which is Iyana- Obasanjo police station, a different station from where he made the first report, and where the incident happened and was asked to write a statement which he did, narrating what happened. I asked what he wrote cos we couldn’t get to the station on time. But he told me the story which is what i have written in this mail.

My dad is an illiterate and cannot really spell well, I don’t know if what he said was exactly what the IPO wrote for him. I don’t know if i should ask for his statement so i read it too.

I was able to ask a DTO officer at the current police station if the incident has been investigated and he said Yes and confirmed even eye- witnesses around told them my dad didn’t cause the accident but was only helping. I don’t know why he is still held there for 3 days now.

My family was asked to contact the deceased family which we did on Friday 6th of September 2024. We were told by the family they had buried the man that same day, and everything has been explained to them. They are now requesting for 15million naira to be paid to them, saying the man has family to feed and he borrowed money from bank, he has people to feed, and he is a church G.O, i.e he is the breadwinner or they go to court. Go to court for someone that helped them. They said we are igbos’s so they will not take it easy, bringing tribalism into it.

They were even rude. My dad told them he is just a delivery man, he has children to feed and other responsibilities, he was only trying to help the man get to the hospital so he will survive. The head DTO asked us to settle and also told the family of the deceased to be considerate with what they are requesting. But those words fell on deaf ears. We have been able to ask around and borrow the sum of 300 thousand and i will make it 400k by adding my own little savings.

What does he do now? There were 3 women at the counter and i heard they are church members of the man, those women have been so aggressive towards us. What do i do now? I need any assistance at this point. We don’t even have money for lawyers. My dad has gone very lean and sick in there. The DTO said he is not even charged for anything, but they are just keeping him there.