23rd July, 2013
The Nigerian Bottling Company, NBC, bottlers of the Coca-Cola brand of soft drinks, has abandoned victims of the accident involving one of their trucks and a school bus conveying some pupils.
The accident occurred around Mangoro bus stop on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, on Friday, 12 July, when the Coca-Cola truck, it was learnt, crushed the bus conveying pupils of Taqwa Nursery and Primary School.
Four of the injured victims, including the driver of the bus, Kolawole Oluwadare, have remained in critical condition since the incident.
The driver had to be moved from Igbobi to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital when his condition did not improve, according to a family source who told P.M.NEWS that the company had abandoned him.
It was learnt that the NBC is in contact with the school on how to replace the school bus, “but they have abandoned the victims to their families and we have spent a lot of money.
“We had to transfer Oluwadare to LUTH and he had been unconscious. He just regained consciousness,” the family source said, appealing to the company to act responsibly on the issue.
As reported earlier by P.M.NEWS, the accident occurred as the school bus was dropping off the pupils in their various homes.
The bus driver, it was reported, sustained severe injuries on his arm, chest, leg and head while the three pupils who also sustained serious injuries were rushed to different hospitals for treatment.
“Since the incident occurred, you can’t believe that no staff of the Nigerian Bottling Company has visited the victims or even bothered to know how they are responding to treatment,” the source added.
To make matters worse, it was learnt that the driver of the Coca-Cola truck was released from detention a few days after the accident by the police at Isokoko Division, Agege, where he was detained.
A consultant to Coca-Cola who identified himself simply as Chinedu denied the involvement of Coca-Cola in the accident.
According to him, Coca-Cola does not own trucks. He said the trucks belong to the NBC while Coca-Cola is a franchise and one of the products which NBC markets.
He reportedly said the relations of the victims were not directing their complaints at the right quarters.
—Eromosele Ebhomele