2 corps members, NYSC staffer die in auto crash in Kogi

Posted by admin Headlines, Kogi, State News Thursday, July 28th, 2011

It was a gloomy afternoon on Tuesday in Kogi State when two corps members who were just discharged from their orientation camp and one National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) staff lost their lives in an auto crash along Kabba/Okene Road.

The incident happened at about 2.15 pm when the corps members, numbering five, including a lady, were travelling in a Honda Accord car with registration number HG 777 EKY belonging to the NYSC staff from the Asaya Orientation Camp, Kabba, to Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.
According to an eyewitness account, the fatal accident occurred when the Honda car conveying the corps members had a head-on collision with a DAF truck with registration number XT 850 LNG heading to Ekiti State.

The account said as a result of the fatal accident, the bodies of the corps members were dismembered and scattered on the highway and could only be identified through their uniforms.
Some of the corps members, it was gathered, had disembarked from a Toyota Hiace bus, which was originally conveying them from Kabba and joined the NYSC staff in his car, who volunteered to give them a ride to Lokoja.
Speaking with Daily Sun, the state Coordinator of NYSC, Frank Ekpunobi, described the incident as touchy and sad.

He said out of the deceased corps members one was a new corps member newly posted to Lokoja while the other was a Batch A corps member who had gone to the camp to felicitate with his friends, while he gave the name of the late staff as Rufai Ahmed who was employed last year.
Ekpunobi who said efforts were being made to contact the parents of the late corps members, however, appealed to corps members serving in the state not to embark on unnecessary journeys but to report to his office before travelling.

Confirming the incident, the Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Sunday Maku, said the remains of the dead corps members had been deposited at the morgue of Okene General Hospital while the injured were receiving treatment in a private clinic.
He said the accident would have been avoided if the two vehicles had not engaged in excessive speeding.

-Sunwp_posts