On 15th January 2024, tragedy befell a young promising Nigerian youth on a Monday afternoon.
Jehoshaphat, a young twenty-eight years old final year student of Kaduna state university woke up that Monday morning, got dressed and journeyed out of the house in Abuja to sign his last register as an IT student in excitement, because not only would he be finally done with his IT program, he would also travel down to Kaduna for his defense the next day being Tuesday. Before he left the house, he had already packed his bags; everything planned out.
On his way back at about 1pm, the taxi he boarded dropped him off at Lugbe, but he needed to get to the other side of the road to proceed to his destination. While he walked towards the pedestrian bridge to cross over, he called his sister and cousin and announced to them with excitement that he had finally rounded off his IT program and was ready for the next chapter of his life: final year.
His sister wondered why he could not wait until he got home before sharing the news since he was going to meet her at the house anyway.
After the phone calls, he continued his walk towards the pedestrian bridge. Unknown to him, a moving car whose owner obviously has no regards for road safety rules and regulations, one of which includes not driving on the wrong lane drove behind him and ran him over.
Jehoshaphat fell on the road, and the driver who had hit him sped off without slowing down or stopping to help the young man, and possibly prevent other speeding cars on the high way from running him over as well. According to eye witnesses, while he painfully tried to drag himself off the road, another car on high speed ran him over again.
This car did not also touch his brakes to at least see who he had hit with his car.
And so there he lay in excruciating pains, his chest cut open, fighting for his life. No car stopped to help him. No passerby or lookers-on dared to go close to him. Road safety officials were called for rescue, but they did not show up. He just lay helplessly there, fighting to stay alive.
At past 3pm, Jehoshaphat stopped fighting and gave up the ghost.
It was not until much later that the road safety officials arrived at the scene. They took his phone, scrolled through it and finally settled on calling his father, and broke the heart-wrenching news to him. The poor man, devastated and heartbroken by the news, had to drive all the way from Abaji to the hospital his son’s body was taken to. And just like wild fire, the news spread across Jehoshaphat’s family.
His father kept lamenting and recounting how he had tried to dissuade his son from signing out on that particular day. According to him, he had even offered to drive the young man himself just to make him change his mind, but he would not budge an inch. His sister also continued to talk about his big dreams and high hopes for his future amidst tears…but all of that is simply crying over spilled milk.
Jehoshaphat’s tragedy could have been avoided completely if every citizen played their part and lived by simple rules and regulations…or at least, had this thing called a “conscience”.
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So disheartening… May God comfort the family.
It’s just too unfortunate that we don’t have a good system in the country, else they would be able to locate those drivers and lock them up. How can you run someone over and and continue on your journey like nothing happened?
And making phone calls or chatting on the road is not advisable too.
Honestly, no conscience or human sympathy at all. And the deceased wasn’t chatting or on a call when it happened; he had already ended his call. Besides, the first car to hit him wasn’t even supposed to be using that lane in the first place.
This is really disheartening.💔 I pray The family of that poor boy receive comfort from God.
Amen, and we can all do better.
A lot of accidents have occurred due to wrong lane usage by road users. See how they ended the poor man’s life…and those bystanders who just stood and watched him fight for his life without helping🤦
The terrible things happening in this country tho…
I feel broken hearing how big dreams get cut short because of some careless drivers…
May this countries help services come to life… Like fire service, road safety, ambulance, police and all .. the delay to save people’s life is so alarming…
In all, may God Almighty give his family the fortitude to bear their loss..
Honestly.
It’s so sad.
May the Almighty comfort the rest of the family.
Amen
It’s so disheartening 💔💔💔. Each citizen has a role to play as well….. The time spent wasting and calling those agencies would maybe, Maybe have help saved a life. I remembered something similar happened in my area. Just because onlookers spent close to an hour looking for a relative. A Big dream cut short. Terrible things happening in this country, and how people just get away with crimes baffles me💔💔💔
People are getting away with so much evil…it’s scary.
It’s so unfortunate that this happened and the culprit went free. May God comfort the family of the deceased. I wish severe punishments can be put in place for traffic offenders to serve as a warning to those that don’t like obeying traffic rules.
Exactly, but even those who are supposed to be enforcing these rules are also defaulters.
I think when issuing driving license to drivers, their mental health need to be checked but because of the corrupt system we found our self even a mad man can be issued a driving license if he has something to offer.
Honestly.
We make plans in our everyday we live in, but the most crucial thing we need is letting God lead our everyday living.
What a painful exit, maybe the young man should have hung on a little bit though the pain try to claim his soul, but life cannot be gambled on cause you may not know what’s on the other side of the coin: it may be a knife at the other side pointing to your chest when you turn it🤗🤗
You just never know…
Rest on Jehoshaphat.
Amen.
We have thrown humanity to the wind. Everyone is just about themselves.
Honestly…and it’s so sad.
Really sad🥺
A corrupt system isn’t just the government but every single person that makes up the state/country.
If only we can just be humans with a conscience, Nigeria will be way better than it is.
May his soul rest on
Nigeria would be a better place of we did the right thing.
This is so painful 😣
May his soul rest in peace 🕊️
Amen
What a tragedy
A real one.