There was confusion at the Rinsayo area of Ede, Osun State, penultimate Friday, after an intoxicated final year student of the Department of Accountancy of the Federal Polytechnic located in the town, Kolawole Olojo, fell inside a well and died instantly.
Twenty-six-year-old Olojo, who had attended a birthday party organised by one of his friends at a bar around the campus, got drunk with alcohol before the incident that claimed his life occurred.
Julianna (surname withheld), a part one undergraduate of Higher National Diploma of the institution, said Olojo was running a part-time programme and was in part three of the diploma course at the polytechnic.
Julianna said the deceased, who had got drunk at the birthday party, staggered and only managed to board a commercial motorcycle, popularly called okada, from the venue of the event to Rinsayo Hostel, where the incident occurred.
She said, “On getting to Rinsayo Hostel, the motorcyclist asked Olojo to disembark, but occupants of the hostel, who saw thedrunken state he was in, told the okada rider that he was not a resident of the hostel. They directed him to take Olojo to the third hostel in the area, where he lived.
“By then, Olojo had already disembarked from the okada and had already sat beside an open well. When he was asked to stand up and mount the motorcycle again, Olojo staggered and fell into the well. The incident created panic and confusion among those who were in the area when it.” Some male students living in the area made frantic efforts to rescue him out of the well, but it was discovered that he had already hit his head on some stones and concrete inside the well said to be about ten rings deep. When other rescuers also tried to get him out of the well, Olojo fell deeper inside the well for the second time. He was eventually brought out dead. But in order to ascertain his condition, he was taken to the school’s medical centre, where a doctor confirmed him dead.
Kolawole was a friendly and easy going person, according to Julianna, and was supposed to have finished his academic programme at the institution last year, but for his involvement in an auto crash in which sustained a fracture on his neck. “It was after he recovered from the accident that he continued his programme.
He escaped death then, but unfortunately died few weeks to his graduation,” a course mate of his, who pleaded anonymity, said. Also, some of his friends have been paying him tributes on his social media accounts.
Olojo had already disembarked from the okada and had already sat beside an open well. When he was asked to stand up and mount the motorcycle again, Olojo staggered and fell into the well
One of his friends on Facebook, Nuhu Omoniyi, wrote, “I can’t believe Olojo Kolawole is gone just like that. What a big loss!” The institution’s Public Relations Officer, Prince Sola Lawal, confirmed the incident on the telephone, describing Olojo’s tragic death as unfortunate.
“It’s unfortunate and there is nothing anybody can do about that. May his soul rest in peace and may God grant his family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss. The Dean of Students Affairs has done what should be done and the student has been buried.”