Ace gospel singer Damilare Odunuga aka Dare Melody in this interview with BAYO AGBOOLA bares his mind on how he narrowly escaped death in a recent autocrash.
How did it happen?
I’m simply bereft of words to explain how it happened, but it was in the wee hours of Saturday November 21, 2020. My band members and I left for Lagos from Ibadan where we just had successful outings at Celestial Church, Goshenland Parish and the New Seraph All White Concert. The journey was smooth until around 4.15am. Myself and my band were moving in a sort of convoy until ww sighted the traffic at Mowe. As it became imperative, the vehicles’ normal speeds were reduced to the barest minimum. At this point, I suddenly heard a loud, nasty noise, a 40 feet heavily-loaded truck struggled with brake failure and hit my car from the rear. The situation left me unconscious for some time as I never knew what happened and where I was.
Unconscious?
Yeahhhh, my car had tumbled and squeezed. I later heard voices, particularly the ones shouting ‘he’s our chairman’. Those were the voices of my band members. Still trapped in an obnoxious enclosure, negative thoughts ran across my mind until rescue came from passersby who joined my other band members to open one of the doors and pulled me and the other four of the car.
What happened thereafter?
It was like watching a movie with lots of stunts. We were all healthy, safe but this story is not sound. It was only one of the truck boys that fell off during the accident that got severely injured. Everyone at the scene blamed and even threatened to beat up the truck driver, claiming that truck drivers had caused deaths serially on that road, but for quick intervention of officers from Mowe Police station, he was spared. Our plan was to get to Lagos early on that Saturday, settle at a relaxation apartment in Ilupeju before moving to Baptist Academy, Obanikoro where we will later perform at a wedding ceremony. I give God the glory that I’m alive to tell this agonising tale. However, I passionately appeal to the government to quickly fix this road and ensure that its agencies thoroughly examine the worthiness of vehicles on our roads. We have had enough of avoidable road accidents, our lives matter please.
