By Gabriel Enogholase
BENIN—NO fewer than 30 persons were reportedly killed in a fatal road accident, involving two passenger buses on Okene-Abuja Express-way, Monday.

Vanguard gathered that one of the passenger buses was heading to Kano from Benin. It had a head-on collision with another bus which was heading towards Edo State from Abuja.

Victims of the accident, said to have occurred at about 11am between Okpella in Edo State and Okene axis of Kogi State, were on their way to join families for Ed-el Fitri celebration.

When the news of the accident filtered into Benin City, yesterday, several families were seen making frantic checks on the passengers manifest at the corporate headquarters of a transport company at Aduwawa, Benin City.

An eyewitness said: “All passengers in both vehi-cles may have lost their lives in the accident.”

The eyewitness said the magnitude of the accident was such that both vehicles were squeezed almost beyond recognition, trapping all passengers on board.

It was gathered that it took several hours before officials of Federal Road Service Commission, FRSC, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSDC, and other security operatives could bring traffic on the busy Abuja-Okene Road under control.

Axes were said to have been used to break up the vehicles before trapped victims could be removed.

Though the immediate cause of the accident was not known at press time, it was, however, gathered that it may not be unconnected with the drivers of both vehicles’ claim to right of way.

Attempt to reach the Sector Commander of FRSC in Edo State for comments proved abortive as he was said to have mobilised his men and material to join its Kogi State counterpart to restore order on the busy road.

-Vanguard

Posted by admin on Nov 9 2011. Filed under Abuja (FCT), Headlines, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry