Late Aliyah Mosaku
In this interview, Mr Mosaku Saheed, a film director and father of 18-year old Aliyah Mosaku, one of the WASSCE candidates killed by a truck driver recently in Ijebu Ode speaks on this agonising experience.
Can I meet you sir?
I am Mosaku Saheed, I am popularly known as 'Adigun Olori Odo' meaning, Adigun the youth leader. I am 43 years old, I am a barber and also a film director. I am from Imosan Ijebu here in Odogbolu Local Government area of Ogun State.
Did you mean you are into acting?
Yes, I am an artiste, I am member of Theatre Arts and Motion Pictures Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN). I am currently the treasurer for the Ijebu Ode Local Government chapter of this association.
Tell us about this unfortunate incident that claimed the life of your daughter
It was last week Friday, May 23, 2025. My daughter, Aliyah 18-year old student of Seico Secondary School, Ikangba, Ijebu Ode, left home in the morning to continue with the writing of the ongoing West Africa Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination.
She was supposed to finish the paper they wrote on that day by 12pm and being Friday and as a Muslim, I said let me rest a bit at home while I go for the Jumat Service by 1pm. While sleeping, I dreamt that I was preparing for the Jumat service, that I was holding the plastic kettle which I usually used to fetch water for ablution, so I woke up because my mind was really on the Jumat Service.
I checked the time and it was past 1pm, Aliyah's younger ones had come back from the school but she was not yet back, so I was a bit restless because ordinarily by that time she ought to have come back from school. Assuming they finished the exam by 12pm, if she gets to see motorcycle to bring her home on time, by quarter past 12 she would have been home.
She was such a very responsible daughter who don't just loiter or walk around aimlessly. So, I took my bath and went for the Jumat Service but I left my phone at home. However, some minutes later one of my children brought my phone to me in the mosque because it kept on ringing.
My child said that the person who called said that I should call him back, so I said that when we were done with the Jumat service I will call back. Not too long after, someone who is like a boss to me in the theatre profession also called me repeatedly but I was just terminating the call thinking that he wanted to talk to me about one acting job to do or something like that.
Minutes later, one of my late daughter's teachers also began to call me repeatedly, at that moment, I could not ignore the calls any more, so I went outside and picked it. He then told me that Aliyah had accident and had been rushed to the General Hospital, Ijebu Ode. He said it wasn't much but that I should come and meet them at the hospital.
I was already trembling because the first thing that came to my mind was that if the accident wasn't much why was she not allowed to receive medical care in the hospitals in the neighborhood but General Hospital. I could not inform her mother because of the state of her health but I told one or two people that I have just been told that Aliyah had accident, so I went to the General Hospital.
On getting to the General Hospital, I discovered that it was even two students that were involved. So, the doctor asked if I came with anyone but I said no, so he said I should go and check one of the accident victims in the mortuary and I found out that it is my darling daughter
How did they say the accident occurred?
According to what we heard, after the students finished their exam on that day, they did not see these commercial motorcycles on time so they decided to trek a bit after which they hope to get the bike to take them home, we even heard that my daughter called one of her younger ones to say that they were done with the examination and that she would soon be at home.
It was while they were around the junction where they thought they could easily get these commercial motorcycles that the accident happened. In fact, on Tuesday, one of the police officers said that the incident should not be said to be accident but manslaughter because Aliyah and the other student killed were said to have really run for their dear lives when they saw the truck coming towards them yet this driver still went after these innocent children and crushed them.
They said that the children would have run further but having gotten to where there is a church fence, they thought they were safe and being girls, may be they were overwhelmed with fear and that was how they were hit. My daughter died on the spot but the other one died much later in the hospital.
What kind of a daughter was Aliyah?
Aliyah was a child everyone will love to have, she was a gift to me. She was so reliable, responsible, very focused and generous to a fault. She had done the JAMB and the result was already out, she was just working so hard to pass the WASSCE and get her university admission before the year ends. Aliyah was such a very, very loving girl, she was quite known for her good character in the community such that for three days, nobody opened their shops, it's an unquantifiable loss for me and the community.
This is a daughter that had always said that she would study Pharmacy, I have always counted on her that she would lend helping hand in training her siblings. But she had been cut down in her prime. She was too dear and so close to me. Aliyah was also a child that was very considerate and too determined to accomplish her educational pursuit.
I could remember that when she wanted to start JAMB lesson, I told her that I don't have the money but she told me not to bother, that she could start something with the little she had and that was how she started the lesson I later paid the rest of the money.
She was helping my younger brother with her POS business whenever she comes back from school, that also made her to be quite known in the town. And she was quite supportive to the family, she's always ready to support with her little savings, she was an exemplary daughter. She was just 18 years old but her sense of maturity and responsibility was just extraordinary..I really missed her, she was a very, very promising child.
You stated that someone said that what happened was a case of manslaughter and not an accident, are you now calling for justice or do you think that the accident was a case of premeditated killing?
I have submitted to the will of the Almighty God, I want to believe that if God had willed that it was not yet the time, He would have one way or the other spared my daughter. For the truck to have run after the girls and killing them eventually suggested that may be their time was up, it is only the Almighty God that knows best.
What about the truck driver
That is being handled by the police.
Have you heard from the Ogun State government?
Some people came from the school and I think that some government officials have equally come around, they said that the Commissioner for Education is already aware of the incident that he would soon visit us and that the governor too is aware of this tragic loss.
Is there any special pledge your late daughter made for you?
Even if she did not make any for me , she was always talking to her mum assuring her that she would definitely make her proud, that she would be there to uplift the family and all of these you can see in her disposition and conduct but the hope has gone with the wind.
Some people said that the accident on the Molipa/Ikangba road has increased since the the road was rehabilitated by the state government, that the government refused to build speed breakers on the road to check the recklessness of some drivers?
One of my councilors in our area has talked about this, he said that he had also called the attention of the government to the need to construct speed breakers on this newly rehabilitated road.
The truth is that before the road was rehabilitated, there was no accident on the road, the ones that used to occur at that time was during the raining season when people would just fall into the ditches on the road.
However, since the road had been rehabilitated, the motorists and the motorcycle riders are always in a haste to get to their destination. The government should try and see whatever could be done to address the frequent accident on this road
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