Driver kills two, charged for manslaughter.
By Felix Kuyinu
A driver, Oyewole Abayomi, has been charged for manslaughter at the Yaba Magistrates’Court after claiming lives and properties while over speeding at Ozumba Mbadiwe Road, Lekki Expressway, Lagos.
The Lagos State Police Command, filing a one-count charge of vehicular manslaughter against Abayomi, told the court that the reckless driving caused the death of one Toheeb Adetunji on November 12, 2023.
The 40-year-old accused standing before Magistrate Linda Balogun was alledged to have crashed his Sienna Space bus involving a Volkswagen T4 commercial bus around 5.30am driven by the victim.
Police prosecutor, Chekwube Okeh, told the court that the victim’s bus allegedly somersaulted and caught fire, three other passengers on board were burnt to death and their bodies deposited in a nearby morgue.
Okeh read the charge, “That you, Oyewole Abayomi, on November 12, 2023, around 5.30 am, at Ozumba Mbadiwe Road, along Lekki-Epe Expressway. Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did cause the death of one Toheeb Adetunji by driving your Toyota Sienna vehicle recklessly and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 224 and punishable under Section 229 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.”
The defendant’s plea was however not taken
The prosecutor prayed the court to remand the defendant to the correctional centre.
Granting the prosecutor’s prayer, Magistrate Balogun ordered the remand of Abayomi to the Ikoyi Correctional Centre.
She adjourned the case till January 22, 2023, for legal advice from the office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
