16th May, 2011
For the first time since he joined the cabinet of Governor Babatunde Fashola as Special Adviser on Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa wept openly at the weekend.
He wept not because he was beaten up, but on the death of three children of Cornerstone School on Lekki-Epe Expressway in a ghastly motor accident.
The event was the commemoration of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety held at the Adeyemi Bero Hall, Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, South West Nigeria on Friday.
An emotional Opeifa wept because the death of the children, which occurred on 11 May, 2011, coincided with the day the United Nations set aside for the decade of action for road safety.
He lamented that it was on that fateful day the devil struck and claimed the lives of three children.
Opeifa decried most of the accidents that had led to wanton destruction of lives and properties in the state, saying they would have been avoided if road users had respected and complied with traffic rules and regulations.
“We all must support government to stop these preventable and avoidable road crashes to make our roads safer. We can control ourselves; we can also control the driver,†he stated.
He said till date, the state had established road safety clubs in over 700 public and private schools, just as it had also nurtured over 10,000 road safety ambassadors to spread the message of safety on roads.
Opeifa said government had commenced the implementation of the UN action plan through the implementation of various programmes.
Also, school children present at the occasion, wore black armbands to mark the occasion and mourn their colleagues killed in a motor accident last week
Fifteen-year old Maria Anifowose, a student of Community High School, Wasimi, Maryland, said the business of road safety required collaborative effort with government in order to ensure the safety of lives, especially children, who were most vulnerable.
“My heart was broken when I learnt about the accident on Lekki road that claimed the lives of three children who were on their way to school, because those young children that died in the unfortunate accidents had a bright future that could have been protected, but unfortunately, this happened because somebody did not keep the safety rules,†she lamented.