BABCOCK: Graduating Student Loses 8 Family Members on their way to the event

Margaret Okwuikpo, who graduated with a second class upper degree in Nursing, was one of the two that could not help shedding bitter tears at the Babcock’s graduation. The lady had lost eight family members in a road crash on Friday, two days to her graduation.

It was learnt that 11 people, including Okwuikpo’s parents, brothers and sisters and her sister-in-law, had an accident shortly after they left Port-Harcourt for the convocation in Ilisan-Remo.

“Eight of the occupants of the vehicle, including Okwuikpo’s parents, her brother and his wife and their eight-month-old baby, died on the spot,” a source close to the family told our correspondent.

A man, who claimed to be Okwuikpo’s relations, said he could not talk to the press. The lady herself was not stable when our correspondent attempted to speak to her.

The correspondent’s telephone call to the university source, with a view to speaking with Okwuikpo, yielded no fruit, as she was said to have left for Port Harcourt on Monday morning.

However, another graduating student, simply identified as Tochi, also lost her father in the same accident.

Another university source, who claimed that Tochi’s brother works at Babcock, said he (the brother) was also too devastated to speak on the issue.

In the course of the ceremony, before it was the turn of the graduating students of her department to mount the rostrum to shake hands with the institution’s principal officers, led by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Kayode Makinde, Okwuikpo had controlled her emotions. But she soon started crying and collapsed on the podium as soon as she walked towards Makinde, Her friend and course mate, Rabiu Sakirat, who was right beside her, could only help in wiping off her tears.

Those who did not know what the matter was were confused.

“Why is she weeping?” a woman beside our correspondent asked rhetorically.

“Perhaps, she remembered her relation who might have been part of those who died in the ill-fated Dana crash a year ago,” another man, who had come to celebrate with her niece, said.

But silence fell upon the hitherto cheerful crowd when it was learnt that the grieving lady had lost her parents two days to her convocation. The institution’s Sports Complex, venue of the convocation, suddenly became a temporary hall of mourning. Parents, students and well wishers shared in the lady’s low moment, with some putting their hands on their heads while others just sighed.

Like a pastor, Makinde rose to the occasion, held Okuikpo’s hands and consoled her. Tochi and her mother were also called to the rostrum where they were prayed for. But efforts to speak with the mourning families were unsuccessful as a man who identified himself as Okuikpo’s relation said they were not in the mood to speak to the press about the sad incident.