Three final year students of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State have been confirmed dead in an accident that occured at Aromoko in Ekiti State on Friday night.
The three students were trapped overnight in the wreckage of the bus in which they were travelling.
As first reported exclusively by The Eagle Online this morning, there were 38 of them who were returning to school at about 10pm on Friday when the accident occured.
The accident occurred right in front of the headquarters of Ekiti West Local Government Area of Ekiti State at Aramoko.
The students were travelling in a Coaster Bus, painted white and with the inscription: Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti.
Sources at the scene of the accident said that two trucks were headed for head-on collision when the driver of the bus in which the students were travelling swerved in the direction of the fence of the local government headquarters, ramming into it.
But one of the trucks also went in that direction, crushing the bus.
Only 35 of the students could be rescued before daybreak as the remaining three were trapped at the back of the bus.
By the time rescue efforts yielded results, they had died.
Among those who took part in the rescue operation were the school’s Rector, Deputy Rector and Deputy Registrar.
The students were returning from Lagos where they had gone for excursion since Tuesday.
They are final year students of Electrical/Electronics, with Telecoms option.
Those severely injured are at the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital while those with minor injury are receving treatment at the Health Centre of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti.