IGANGA, UGANDA: A first-year vocational student of Prime vocational Institute at Bugabwe village, Nakigo sub-county in Iganga district yesterday died instantly after jumping off a school motor grader and crashing him during the graduation jubilations.
The student identified as Wadaba Benard was pursuing a driving course at the institute.
Prime Vocation Institue was on Friday, June 17, having its second graduation ceremony as well as celebrating the institution’s tenth anniversary.
The director Prime Vocational Institute, Bazira Michael says that the incident occurred in the morning after a graduation matching conducted by the students ahead of the celebration hours.
“This morning, however, we had an incident after the matching as the students were reporting back, one of the students jumped off the truck and the truck rolled over his body and incidentally the student passed on,” Mr Bazira said.
He also said that the graduation attracted many people from various corners of the country and they couldn’t cancel the ceremony despite the shocking incident.
“This graduation was for over 600 graduands and it was attracting people from not only Iganga but even outside Iganga. The guests and partners were here so it was difficult for us to cancel the graduation ceremony but we had to put it on hold for some hours to mourn and do what we can to make sure that the incident is well handled,” Bazira added.
Busoga East Police mouthpiece SP Diana Nandawula confirmed the incident saying that police preliminary investigation indicates that the student jumped off the grader and hit his head on the ground.
“A first-year student called Wadaba Benard at Prime Vocational Institute in Iganga has died instantly after jumping off a grader and hitting his head on the ground,” SP Nandawula said before adding that the students first matched through Iganga town before reporting back to school where the accident occurred.
Police in Iganga arrived with their pick-up and conveyed the body to Iganga general hospital at Nakavule for autopsy as an investigation to establish what exactly transpired continues.
Students graduated with national certificates and occupational certificates from the Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT). They included students from the campus and others in community centres.
The graduation was attended by among others, development partners and local government delegates plus officials from the ministry of education and sports.
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