Disturbed by the burning of the shuttle buses in Okitipupa Area of Ondo State, some parents in the local government area have continued to lament over the incident.
Some hoodlums had taken advantage of the protest against police brutality to set the buses on fire last week Thursday.
The buses were parked inside the premises of the secretariat of Okitipupa Local Government Area while the miscreants also razed offices in the building.
The incident has continued to generate adverse reactions from the locals, especially parents whose children travel to and fro by the buses to school.
Speaking on Monday, a parent, Kikelomo Ariola, described the incident as very shocking.
She said that the burning of the buses was purely an act of wickedness and could cause economic hardship.
According to her, the incident would hurt the parents and mostly the children who go to school by the shuttle buses.
Abiodun Akinlolu, a father of three, whose children usually boarded the buses to school, said that the arsonists destroyed no fewer than four buses.
He said the burnt shuttle buses had been saving him not less than ten thousand naira per month as transport fares for his three children.
Akinlolu added that those who set ablaze the shuttle buses in the town were not the real demonstrators against police brutality, noting that the perpetrators were sponsored arsonists.
Another parent, Ogunmola Obatola, described the incident as a setback for the community, noting that it would take the people some years to recover from it.
He explained that hundreds of children in the community had been affected by the damage, stressing that many of them would start trekking to school again.
“I wish that those who did this in the name of #EndSARS will have realised the implication of their action. Now, our children and students will have to trek daily to school again.
“Can those innocent children forgive these set of hoodlums? No, because they won’t forget a day like this. They have already written a bad history by burning those shuttle buses.
“I am in total support that the security agencies should fish out the people who committed this carnage against our children and make them face the music,” Obatola said.
One of the students in Okitipupa town, Bimbo Adetubi, said she would have to trek about three kilometres to school since the shuttle buses have been set ablaze.
She said that those who burnt down the buses were not their brothers or sisters, describing them as hoodlums.
“They are heartless people who infiltrated our town to commit the devilish act,” she said. “No educated person would do this to us here in Okpa [Okitipupa].
Reacting to the destruction, the commissioner of Education in the state, Femi Agagu, said the government was devastated by the incident and had already begun an investigation.
He added that all schools in the state would remain closed till normalcy is fully restored in all the troubled communities in the state.
