How sympathizers stole Anthony Joshua’s phone at accident scene — Uncle

Adedamola Joshua, an uncle of former world boxing champion, Anthony Joshua, shared his thoughts with BANKOLE TAIWO on the accident that claimed the lives of two of the boxer’s friends, the trauma the family is facing after getting the news of the incident, among other issues. 

How did you get to know about the accident involving the former world boxing champion, Anthony Joshua, and two of his friends?

Well, some of us are not really used to social media, so we didn’t get to hear of it on time. But around 1 pm, one of my church members, a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, called to inform me of the accident and it was like I had never in my life heard that people were involved in an accident. How can Anthony Joshua be involved in an accident? It sounded so impossible, but it actually happened; it is unfortunate.

How is the family coping with this incident?

It has really left us in shock because this is not the first, the second, or the third time he has been coming home, so what happened? Why now? He just arrived in the country six hours ago on that day, and was eager to see his family in Sagamu, only for things to go the way they went.

He could have decided to say that he wanted to spend some time with the Governor of Lagos State (Babajide Sanwo-Olu) or other influential Nigerians, but he said that he wanted to be with his family in Sagamu. It is really painful that such an incident happened.

What was he actually coming home to do?

He has always come home around Yuletide to enjoy the festive period with the family. It’s something he has been doing for some time; it’s nothing unusual.

But we heard that there is an annual gathering that the Joshua family usually holds here. How true is that?

The annual gathering for all the Joshua family has been stopped because our elder brother, who used to coordinate it, died, and there was no one to pick up the coordination again. So, the gathering died naturally.

However, when Joshua comes around, he stays with the Governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun, the Akarigbo, Oba Babatunde Ajayi, and others.

Have Anthony Joshua’s parents always been in Nigeria, or did they fly in because of the accident?

They are mostly in Nigeria, especially the father of the boxer; they have businesses they are managing in the country, although the mother is always with her son in the UK, but she also comes home. So, they are not far from home at all.

What would you say about the emergency service after the accident involving the boxer?

I want to condemn the lackadaisical attitude of our government towards anything emergency. To see Joshua crossing the median after the accident when he was supposed to be on a stretcher was distressing.

When you are in such trauma, the stress must be minimised; he was supposed to have been put in an ambulance and from there be treated. If it had been abroad, a helicopter would have arrived at the scene within five minutes for the evacuation of the victims of the accident.

It is an eyesore for the people alive to see such a gory scene of the accident that is now being circulated on social media. The government should deploy more ambulances on that stretch of the road, because accidents are always happening on that road. It is not enough to have the officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps checking vehicle documents; let there be ambulances too, stationed along this road.

Some people at the scene of the accident have also been criticised for making videos instead of helping to evacuate victims. What’s your take on this?

Some Nigerians act badly at accident scenes. When they are supposed to help, you will see them bringing out their phones to make videos and even steal from the victims. That is not right.

We even heard that Anthony Joshua’s phone was stolen during the accident; such attitudes must be discouraged. The police and other emergency responders should get to the scene of an accident on time and cordon off the place.

There is also the need to step up enlightenment across our motor parks and even for all Nigerians that we owe it a national duty to immediately call emergency toll lines to inform the appropriate agencies whenever we come across emergency situations like accidents, fire disasters, among others.

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