50 People crushed to death on Abuja-Okene highway

Posted by admin Headlines Thursday, August 4th, 2011

It was a gory site yesterday at the Zariagi end of the Abuja/Okene highway when the residents woke up to behold crushed bodies of over 50 robbery victims. The victims were said to be passengers of an Abuja-bound luxury bus, marked XI 300 ABC, belonging to a popular transport company.

They were said to have been waylaid by robbers, who ordered them to lie face down on the highway before they were dispossessed of their belongings.

An unsuspecting truck was said to have run over the victims and later escaped the scene of the accident.

A similar incident occurred precisely two years ago when a trailer lorry crushed 40 armed robbery victims along Sagamu/Benin highway.

The incident, which occurred along Odogbolu-Ijebu axis of the Benin Expressway also left several other passengers severely injured.

Kogi State Sector Commandant of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr. Sunday Maku, confirmed yesterday’s tragedy. He said that his men were alerted to the scene by residents of the area.

An eye witness said that the luxury bus was coming from Lagos and headed towards Abuja when it ran into the robbers along Zariagi end of the Abuja-Okene highway.

The bandits were said to have barricaded part of the highway with a vehicle while their colleagues laid in ambush for oncoming vehicles at the other side of the road.

As the ill-fated vehicle ran into the robbers, the eye-witness stated that the hoodlums ordered all the over 50 occupants out of the bus and forced them to lie face down on the road.

The robbers later had a field-day dispossessing them of their money and other valuables.

It was, however, gathered that another luxury bus coming from Lagos, in company with another truck, was said to have run into the operation and in the process, crushed the passengers, killing them on the spot.

Maku disclosed that the mangled remains of the passengers littered the road as other vehicles ran over them. Bones, brains and other parts of the bodies were scattered on the highway.

He described the accident as so fatal that his men could only retrieve 14 bodies, consisting 10 male adults, three female adults and a baby. The driver of the bus and a soldier were, however, said to be the only survivors of the accident.

Maku urged members of the public to stop travelling at night, saying ‘night journeys are always deadly’.

Meanwhile, the bodies have been deposited at the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, while the luxury bus had been impounded by the Police for investigation.wp_posts