Train crushed man to death, attempting to save son

 

A commuter train has crushed a shoe merchant, Christopher Ngobidi, to death, while his son, Arinze, is fighting for his life in a hospital.  The incident happened on Monday around the Nigerian Army Shopping Arena, Oshodi, Lagos State.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the train had earlier collided with a white Ford Ecoline 250 bus with number plate, GGE 972 GE, at the PWD area.

The train, while pulling the Ford vehicle, got to the Army Shopping Arena, where Ngobidi parked his Toyota Highlander on the rail tracks.

It was gathered that the Anambra State indigene, a trader at the Arena, was waiting for the gate of the shopping mall to open when he saw the approaching train.

Our correspondents learnt that Ngobidi raced to the vehicle to rescue his son,  who was sleeping in the vehicle, but was crushed to death by the train.

However, Punch, during a visit to the scene of the incident and the shop of the deceased, observed that many stalls around the deceased’s shop were locked.

A witness, Hezekiah Adekanmi, said, “The man parked on the rail track while he was waiting for the Arena gate to be opened. While the train was coming with a bus that it had earlier hit, it started honking. But the man, who was not in the car, remembered that his son was inside the vehicle and he ran to rescue him.

Before he could come out of the vehicle, they were hit by the train and pushed inside a gutter. The man died immediately, while his son was injured. The train still dragged the bus to the Oshodi under bridge before it stopped.”

One of the shop owners around Ngobidi’s shop, Efechukwu Udeh, who described the deceased as a nice man, lamented that he would be sorely missed.

He said, “Christopher (Ngobidi) was my neighbour in this market and he was nice to everybody.