The tragedy which occurred at midnight involved a vehicle
and a 14-seater bus conveying members of the Assemblies of God Church, Isu in
Ohaoazara Local Government Area from a burial.
No fewer than fourteen persons died
yesterday in a road accident at Amasiri Secondary School junction of the
Afikpo-Okigwe federal road in Afikpo South LGA of Ebonyi State.
According to the SUN, Mr Roland Ogbuke, Afikpo Unit
Commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), confirmed the accident.
He said:
“We received a distress call early this morning of the
accident. I mobilized my rescue officers immediately to the scene of the
carnage.
“Sources informed us that the articulated vehicle-driver was
trying to dodge a heap of sand on the road but hit the oncoming bus which was
in a convoy of vehicles.
“The impact sent the bus crashing into a tree some metres
away from the road. Bodies of passengers were mangled.
“We have to mobilise a nearby quarry company which used its
heavy duty machine to cut the tree in order to evacuate the mangled bodies of
the passengers,” he said.
Ogbuke noted that the crushed passengers were mostly women,
as their relatives and church- members who were inside other vehicles,
cooperated with his officers in the evacuation process.
“The police in particular, assisted the FRSC in evacuating
the bodies to the Mater Misericordae Hospital, Afikpo because our vehicle
developed a serious fault on the way.
“We are thereby urging citizens of the state whose relatives
failed to return from a journey on Saturday, to visit the hospital to identify
the corpses,” he said. “We urged the public to imbibe road safety practices by
shunning night journeys, over- speeding among other practices that negate road
safety regulations,” he said.
The Sun
No comments:
Post a Comment