A road accident between Gbongan and Ikire in Osun State on Sunday resulted in the death of five students of Osun State University (UNIOSUN) and one other passenger.

The deceased students were returning to their homes after the Harmattan Semester examinations when the incident happened.

It was a head-on collision between a luxurious bus travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, and an 18-passenger bus from Osogbo, Osun, on Sunday afternoon.

FIJ gathered that the vehicle from Ibadan was driving in the wrong direction, commonly known as “one-way driving”, and rammed into the other in the process.

Taofeeq Sokunbi, the Osun State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), and Adeoye Akeem Adeola, the spokesperson for the police in the state, shared details of the accident with FIJ on Tuesday afternoon.

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Contrary to media reports claiming 10 fatalities were recorded in the accident, the FRSC and the police confirmed six.

The FRSC Sector Commander disclosed that an investigation was ongoing to ascertain the exact cause of the road accident. “What I can say is that there was a crash between Gbongan and Ikire on Sunday,” Sokunbi said.

“The account I have (probably if I get across to the unit commander, he can give me an update) is that as of Sunday, there were six casualties. And a crash investigation is being conducted on it. When the report is out, then we can begin to talk about causative factors,” he added.

On his part, the police spokesperson said, “The bus coming to Osun from Ibadan left its lane and collided with the other bus. I can confirm that there were six casualties, five of whom were students from UNIOSUN, while the sixth person was a non-student.”

However, he could not provide additional information on the total number of persons involved or the survivors.

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A statement issued by Ademola Adesoji, the public relations officer for UNIOSUN, revealed that Olagbemide Damilola, a 200-level student of Medicine and Surgery, survived the accident while the other five students lost their lives.

Adesoji said the road crash happened around Balogun Area, before Unity School, Ikire, and the school quickly dispatched teams to the scene when they heard the news.

On Tuesday, the school management announced the closure of the university to mourn the five students.

Abimbola Abatta is a reporter with FIJ, writing reports in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.