Rico Swavey’s mum speaks about son’s death, recalls his last moments

By David Adebayo

A week after the burial of her son, Rico Swavey, the bereaved mother,  Halima Hassan, has spoken about her last moments with her son, saying she is not happy when she saw her son in his dying moments.

Mrs Hassan, who decried the country’s deplorable condition of roads, said if the roads were in good shape, many road accidents would have been minimized or averted.

She spoke at the unveiling of a foundation in the name of her son, who died at the age 29.

She pleaded with hospitals to attend to patients first without demanding money for deposit and also urged the government to fix bad roads in the country to avoid future accidents.

In an emotionally laden voice, she  said: “I wasn’t happy when I saw him. No one would want to bury their children while they are still here.

*Unfortunately it happened to me and fortunately, I will use this to appeal to the government, the hospitals. All I’m doing will not bring Rico back. It’s just for the future.

“For the hospitals, any accident, trauma accidents like Rico’s, they should put money aside and treat the person first. I don’t wish this for anybody and they should try to do the roads, the roads are terrible.

“Even if it’s the street lights, whatever they can do, to help the young ones. We all have young people moving here and there, hustling for their lives. We don’t want anything to happen to them.”