LagRide driver slumps and dies while preparing for work as untold hardship bites

Adebayo Padmore, a driver with LagRide, has died.

 

He died on the morning of Jan. 8, while getting ready to begin picking up passengers.

 

Saheed Ayeni, one of three drivers who took Padmore to Louis Med hospital in Lekki, from Oniru market where he collapsed, said: “He collapsed at 5 a.m. after checking the bonnet before resuming work, and we had to revive him with buckets of water. His last words while we rushed him here were, ‘Don’t let me die.’”

 

Padmore was pronounced dead minutes after a doctor attended to him.

 

 

Before his death, Padmore was the National Deputy President of the Amalgamated Union of the app-based transporters of Nigeria.

 

“We will conduct an autopsy to ascertain the cause of death,” said Tumi Adeyemi, the head of the solutions for LagRide.

 

Meanwhile, other drivers who are part of the Amalgamated Union of the app-based transporters of Nigeria lamented the hostile working conditions of ride-hailing companies in Nigeria.

 

Padmore was previously treating an undisclosed ailment, said Saheed Ayeni and one other driver. According to them, LagRide’s daily targets put drivers like Padmore under pressure.

 

In December 2023, Ibrahim Ayoade, the general secretary of the App-Based Transporters of Nigeria (AUATON), faulted LagRide’s financing model, claiming it encouraged the demand of unrealistic returns from drivers. He said the association had critiqued this “killer model” with no success.

 

LagRide operates a lease-to-own model that allows drivers to make a down payment of ₦700,000 for brand-new GAC vehicles. Drivers spread the rest of the payments across four years by making daily payments of ₦8900.

 

Friends and colleagues of Padmore have gone on Facebook to mourn him.