THE death toll of the school children who were burnt in an inferno in Ibadan, Oyo State on Wednesday while being conveyed to their school has risen to seven.
The Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Corps Commander Godwin Ogagaoghene, who confirmed the increase in the death toll in Ibadan on Thursday, condemned the kind of school buses being used by private schools in the state.
He said school proprietors should embrace the kind of school bus which was introduced by the FRSC, saying that it was safer.
According to him, the school bus introduced by the FRSC had two exit, which made coming and going out easy for school children.
The FRSC boss also asked school proprietors to look for qualified drivers to handle their school buses.
He also stressed the need for vehicle owners to always have fire extinguishers in their vehicles, saying that if the school bus had fire extinguisher and the driver trained, he would have applied it before the fire got out of hand.
The deceased were among 20 pupils being conveyed to their school, Divine Wisdom Group of Schools, Ibadan, Oyo State, when the school bus was gutted by fire, few metres to the school.
Also, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Olabisi Okuwobi, confirmed that death toll had risen.
It will be recalled that 13 pupils of the school, located at Amosu area in Lagelu Local Government Area of the state were rushed to the emergency unit of the University College Hospital (UCH), after the Ford bus conveying them suddenly caught fire on Wednesday.
While some of the pupils, aged between five and 11, were rushed to different private hospitals around Iyana Church area, where the incident happened, 13 others were rushed to the UCH, due to the severity of the burns and were placed on oxygen.
When the Nigerian Tribune visited the emergency unit of the UCH, seven of the school children had been confirmed dead by the hospital management.
Parents of the victims, relatives, as well as sympathisers were seen at the hospital monitoring the kids, while others turned the hospital into a mini-church of sorts, praying for the recovery of the children.
