The Dangote Group of Companies has compensated the families of eight students killed in an accident involving its cement truck in Ondo State.

The students union president, Oluwasegun Obagunwa, confirmed this development in a statement to the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday.

PREMIUM TIMES on January 23 reported how the company’s truck carrying bags of cement, suffered brake failure and rammed into shops at the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA) campus gate.

The accident led to the death of eight people.

The students’ union president, Mr Obagunwa said following their agitations, the company has now compensated the families of victims.

“The Students’ Union Government wishes to announce to the students and the entire populace that the Dangote group of companies has reached out to all the families of the victims to pay them condolence visits.

“The N500,000 has already been paid to each of the families. We all know that there is no amount of money, items or valuables that can ever be compared to the loss.

“There are other on-going plans by the Dangote Group of Companies to further compensate the victims and their families in due time,’’ he said.

Speaking on the development, Anthony Chiejina, the spokesperson of the Dangote Group, told PREMIUM TIMES that the N500,000 given to the families is “one of many plans of the group”. 

“Dangote group compensated the families of the victims, starting with N500,000 burial expenses among others like payment of insurance and death benefits,” Mr Chiejina said.

“We are deeply saddened that such a thing happened. It is not just paying people N500,000, we visited the families of the victims and also created communication channels with the University

“It will also contain disability benefits for the injured. We have also stepped up compliance and enforcement processes to practically reduced the accident rate involving our trucks.”