Multiple accidents claim 17 lives in Kogi, 2 Police Inspectors involved

Idris Ahmed, Lokoja.

Two ghastly motor accidents occurred separately along Lokoja — Ayingba road in Kogi state on Thursday claiming no fewer than 17 lives involving two Police Inspectors and 15 other persons

The first accident occurred near Ojudu village in the afternoon of the fateful Thursday involving two Police Inspectors who were on their way to a mortuary at Ayingba to pick the remains of their colleague sergeant who earlier died in an accident on the same road.

The deceased officers were in an ambulance with an empty casket when an articulated vehicle was said to have ran into them, killing all the occupants including the driver.

According to the Police Public Relation Officer,(PPRO) DSP William Aya, the two officers were sent to an  Ayingba morgue to pick the corpse of their late sergeant who died in an earlier accident for onward movement to Adamawa state for burial when they lost their lives.

About 5 hours after Fourteen persons, including five children same day, Thursday, lost their lives in another ghastly motor accident which occurred on same  Anyingba – Lokoja road in Kogi State.

The State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps ( FRSC), Mr Solomon Aghure confirmed to newsmen in Lokoja on Friday that three vehicles; two trucks and a passenger bus were involved in the multiple accident which happened in the evening of Jan. 14.

He said that the three vehicles were travelling on the same lane towards Anyingba when a truck suddenly hit the bus from behind and as a result of the impact, hit the truck in its front.

The Sector Commander explained that the bus was trapped in between the two trucks with all the passengers, before his men arrived the scene to carry out rescue operation which lasted for hours.

Aghure disclosed that 14 out of the 23 persons involved in the accident died on the spot while nine others sustained various degrees of injury.

According to him, those who died included three female children, two male children, eight women and one man.

The Sector Commander  further explained  that three men, one woman and five children, comprising two male children and three female children were lucky to have survived the accident with some injuries.

He said that while the injured were taken to Holley Memorial Hospital, Ochadamu for treatment, corpses of the dead were deposited at the morgue of Grimard Hospital, Anyingba.

While suspecting break failure as the cause of the accident, he, however, said that the Corps is carrying out investigation to ascertain its cause.