3 soldiers, 11 others die in separate accidents

Posted by admin Armed Forces, Headlines, Uncategorized Sunday, December 4th, 2011

By Dayo Johnson and Gabriel Enogholase
No fewer than 14 persons including three soldiers were killed in two separate accidents yesterday.

The soldiers were trapped and burnt to death in an auto crash at Aiyegunle, Oka-Akoko, near Owo, Ondo State alongside five students of a military school and two others.

In the other accident which occurred along Benin-Agbor Road, four persons reportedly lost their lives while 11 others sustained injuries.

The incident which claimed the lives of the soldiers and seven others, according to eye witnesses, occurred at about 12:40 p.m. and involved a military vehicle marked NA 880 B01 belonging to the military school and a tanker.

The tanker was said to have lost control and rammed into the military vehicle.

The impact, according to the eye witnesses, caused both vehicles to burst into flames, burning the trapped victims in the military vehicle to death.

The Benin/Agbor Road accident, it was gathered, involved a commuter bus with the inscription, “The Young Shall Grow”, and another vehicle, which particulars could not be immediately ascertained, occurred when the commuter bus was trying to overtake a trailer.

The vehicle closely following it hit it from behind, resulting in the accident.

The bodies of the dead passengers were immediately deposited at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) mortuary, just as two of the injured passengers were receiving medical attention at the hospital.

The remaining injured passengers, according to a source, were admitted in a private clinic along Sapele Road, Benin City.

Meanwhile, the accident raised security concerns as none of the passengers was identified to be Nigerians.

“Many of the passengers are from Mali and none could speak English,” a source at the UBTH told newsmen.

-Vanguardwp_posts