He worked as a driver in a private company for the past ten years and had dreamt of setting up his own his transport company on retirement.

WHEREAS many had expected that these tears would address the problem that elicited it, it only appears to have made mockery of a helpless situation, given that two years after, the issue remained as if no one saw the tears. Perhaps, that was why many had described that display of emotion by then Minister for Transport Diezeani Allison Madueke, on Benin/Ore Expressway as mere lip service.

“Somebody took my son and threw him into the sea. My Sunday is a peaceful boy, he does not fight and does not smoke, I can’t believe he is nowhere to be found. I miss him so much”; Sunday’s mother, Mrs Oluyemi Akindele lamented holding her bible to her chest and speaking Yoruba in very low tones.

IT was an exercise reminiscent of the demolition of the chaotic Oshodi Market-cum- bus-stop in January 2009 by men of the Lagos State Task Force on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement Unit). It was a massive operation which sent all undesirable elements within Oshodi and environs packing and ensured the return of sanity in the area.

Call it a typical tragic story coming out of tragedy-prone Lagos, you will not be wrong. For how else can one describe the fate of a man and his mother who were both victims of the tanker fire that claimed several lives at Fin Niger along the Lagos-Badagary Expressway.