About seven persons sustained serious injuries in an accident involving a passenger car and cows numbering about 20 at Omi-Adio Ibadan end of the Ibadan-Abeokuta expressway Monday.
Tough, no death was recorded in the mishap, a bloody clash between the Fulani settlers and residents in the surrounding villages (host communities) was promptly averted by the presence of policemen who came to evacuate the injured at the scene of the accident.
According to The Nation, the commercial vehicle (Blue color Toyota car bus) loaded with ten passengers, it was gathered, was coming from Abeokuta to Ibadan when the accident occurred in between Aba-Teacher and Aba-Oke village, Omi Adio, Ibadan.
Those who sustained injuries, the driver and six others were said to have been taken to a private hospital for treatment, while one of the cows, which had knee injury, was evacuated from the expressway to prevent it from causing more accident on the highway.
An eyewitness account said immediately the accident occurred, a young Fulani man who was directing the cows called out the cows and ran away into the bush without caring for the life of the passengers in the wrecked Toyota car bus.
“It was a terrible scene. This is not the first time we have been witnessing accident by herdsmen who never listen to the warning not take their cows near the expressway. God has been so kind to these passengers, they could have died. The vehicle was badly damaged and instead of making effort to save life, the Fulani man just called on his cows with their language and immediately the whole cows ran after him except the injured cow on the expressway. This is very bad, something urgent must be done to avoid all this problem on the highway,” a villager who pleaded anonymity said.
The cows, immediately, were said to have sped off in the direction of the herdsman into the bush, while sympathisers, mostly people from the surrounding villages pursued the Fulani man but could not trace him.
Consequently, some people who were busy in the rescue work to remove the trapped passengers from the wrecked vehicle, started to mobilise to launch a manhunt into the bush for the Fulani herdsmen.
It was learnt that while the villagers were about to unleash mayhelm on the herdsmen , the driver of the vehicle arrived the scene with two policemen from nearby Omi-Adio police station , and the policemen appealed to the angry residents to avoid making trouble with the herdsmen as the case has been reported at station.
A police source at the station confirmed the incident, and assured that normalcy has since returned to the area.
