Lagos photographer, Solomon Balogun, who took a night bus from Lagos to Kano to cover a wedding, has gone missing.
His relatives and friends say they are concerned about his whereabouts and visit the park in Okokomaiko and the police department in the area.
Noureddin Balogun, the photographer’s brother, said that the 31-year-old took a bus at around 7 p.m. to Kano in Alaba-Ragou Park, Okokomaiko, along the Lagos-Badgerie Expressway on March 2 to cover a planned wedding. . March 4th.
Mr. Balogun said it was his brother’s fiancée who called him that contact with him could not be reached.
Her fiancée Tayo explained that she was in touch with him throughout the trip until around 10pm
“I was taking a shower, he called me and told me he wanted to tell me something. He didn’t look any different, he spoke to me like he normally does,” she said.
“I called him again and then his number didn’t work anymore.”
Miss Taiwo said she called him several times until 10pm when she had to call his brother (Noureddine) to try to reach him on his end.
SEARCH
Mr Balogun said their mother had gone to the park to ask about him, but the chief of the park said her son and 17 other passengers had an accident around 3 a.m. Thursday in Kogi State and were buried in a mass grave.
“When they got there, they (park officials) said ‘That bus yesterday, they don’t die. They don’t all die.
Then my mother questioned them, is this how people die. “And you can’t even contact any of the family,” he said.
“So you have the statement, I asked, and then they went to get it. They saw his name in the statement but it was marked by two other names.”
GARDEN HEAD ENTRANCE
“And when I asked, the president could not give any concrete reason for the asterisks on the names.”
The brother said he also went there on Saturday and the chief of the park told him the same thing. At that time, his brother’s phone was still ringing.
Balogun said a video of the accident was shared with him, but the plate number on the statement was different from the number in the video.
He said he remains unconvinced because the driver’s name is not on the statement. “There is foul play here,” he said.
He said he left there for the Okoko Police Department to report the matter and was asked to come the next day.
On Sunday, he went to the police station and was asked to “go and rent a bus.”
They went with him to the garden but the chief was not there because he had gone to an official meeting.
Mr. Balogun explained that he had taken the matter to the state headquarters in Ikeja and had been advised by the Division’s Human Rights Office to report to Area H leadership in Festak.
“While I was there, I got a call from Okoko that the chief of the park was there, so I left my sister there. At the police station, the child protection official asked the chief to explain what happened.”
(The chief) said they left the park and had an accident and nine people survived. One died in hospital and the remaining eight left.
He said the president told the police a different version of the incident than he told their mother.
“He told the police that the bus hit a tank that was parked on the road, but he told their mother that the bus hit a tank and exploded because a nearby forest was burning,” Mr. Balogun said.
He said the driver told the police that the passengers were burnt beyond recognition and that locals took them to the morgue but were refused and then had a mass burial “with the approval of the police.”
PARK REACTS
This reporter, who posed as a relative, visited the park on Saturday and met President Auwalu Usaini.
He said the bus crashed and exploded, killing almost all passengers and drivers.
Alparago Park, Okucomaiko
“I don’t know anything about burials,” said Mr. Yosini of mass burials.
He said six people survived.
This reporter also directed drivers on the road for further inquiries.
Drivers gave a bloody picture of the burning bus in Lokoja, Kogi state, adding that their colleague, the “waiting” father, also lost his life.
They noted that the statement was also burnt, adding that the family should go to the scene of the accident “to see things for themselves.”
