Yar’Adua’s convoy
in auto crash
• Security aide dies, 4 others injured
By LUCKY NWANKWERE, Abuja
Monday, December 17, 2007
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Umaru
Yar’Adua
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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The convoy of President Umaru Yar’Adua was on Sunday
morning involved in an accident, which claimed the life of
one of his security details and injured four others.
The accident occurred at Lugbe Junction, on the Airport Road,
Abuja as the president, who had been away on state visit to
the United States of America, was being driven back to the
Presidential Villa shortly on arrival in Abuja at about 9.40
am in the usual convoy.
The presidential spokesman, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, said the accident
occurred when one of the tyres of a Mercedes Benz car conveying
the security operatives attached to the president and driven
by the late detail, Mr. Suleiman Adebayo, burst at Lugbe Junction
and somersaulted several times.
He said: “Immediately the accident happened, the chief
personal physician to the president and other officials in
the convoy stopped to convey the five victims to the National
Hospital, where Adebayo was pronounced dead.
“The four other injured victims are currently receiving
treatment at the National Hospital, where the Minister of
Health, Prof. Adenike Grange, who heard about the accident,
was on hand to receive them”.
Daily Sun correspondent,
who arrived the scene shortly after the accident and witnessed
the evacuation of the dead and the injured, discovered that
the Mercedes Benz car was a complete wreck as men of the Federal
Road Safety Commission made spirited effort to tow it away
to the Presidential Villa.
Meanwhile, President Yar’Adua on Sunday directed officials
of the Nigerian embassy in Saudi Arabia to convey his condolences
to the widow and mother of Adebayo, who are currently in Mecca
on pilgrimage.
He also ordered the release of a presidential aircraft to
carry the remains of Adebayo to his hometown for burial according
to Islamic rites.
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