Young lawyer from London killed in Nigeria hit-and-run crash

Doyin Sarah Fagbenro, 25, a brilliant young lawyer from London was flown 4,500 to the UK in a desperate attempt to save her but was pronounced dead in a hospital in Cambridge three days later with her parents by her side.

above photo: Tragedy: Doyin Sarah Fagbenro, 25, died in a crash in Nigeria [photo credit; evening standard]

Miss Fagbenro, killed in a hit-and-run crash in Nigeria, was named one of the UK’s 10 most outstanding black students in the 2010 Rare Rising Stars Awards, was reportedly in collision with a bus as she drove to church in capital Lagos on January 10.

Her family today paid tribute to their “beautiful, adventurous and caring” daughter.

Local media reports stated the driver fled the scene leaving her with fatal injuries in the wreck of her car.

Miss Fagbenro interned at City law firm Norton Rose Fulbright before moving to Nigeria where she worked as an assistant to the boss of energy firm Dixoil Offshore.

Her father Dayo, who works for the United Nations, flew out to be at her bedside before organising an air ambulance to take her back to the UK for emergency surgery.

Her devastated mother Dupe, a hospital pharmacist, told the Standard: “She was beautiful, intelligent, adventurous and caring. She was absolutely everything to us. She had a very bright future but it has ended in this tragedy.”

The straight-A student, the eldest of four siblings, grew up in Canning Town and graduated in law from Queen Mary’s University in east London in 2013. 

In a moving tribute written by her family she was described as having an “adventurous nature and fierce independence”

They said: “Her relentless determination was an inspiration to so many, yet never deterred from her playfulness and love for life; she loved to laugh, party and smile."

“Even through her most testing times she never lost her sense of humour and could always be trusted to lift the spirits of those around her.”

Her funeral was held at All Nations Church in Bedford on Saturday. Mourners were asked to wear red, her favourite colour.