Kogi top civil servant drown
From Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
It was a horrible experience for commuters plying the Abuja-Lokoja highway over the weekend as they watched helplessly as 16 people were burnt to death in an accident involving a passengers’ bus and a sport utility vehicle.
According to an eye witness, the accident which occurred on Friday night around Alewu village end of the highway involved 17 people, with 16 burnt beyond recognition.
The Federal Road Safety Corps ( FRSC) said yesterday all those killed in the crash had been given mass burial.
The Kogi State Sector Commander of the FRSC, Mr Ogochukwu Ugboma, said the gender and the identity of the victims could not be ascertained as a result of the severity of burns they sustained.
Ugboma said the injured were treated at Ideal Hospital, Koton Karfe and discharged.
The Sector Commander blamed the drivers of the two vehicles for the accident, stating that they left their lanes which resulted in a head on collision.
On the daily heavy traffic jam on the River Niger bridge between Lokoja and Koton Karfe, the Sector Commander said it was due to stop-and- search operation being carried out by the military Joint Task Force, urging commuters to bear with them.
In a similar development, the Senior Registrar of Sharia court of Appeal, Lokoja, Mr. Sadiq Amodu was said to have veered into Meme river along, Lokoja-Ajaokuta road on friday night.
He was said to be coming from the Lokoja Club where a send forth party was organised for one of his friends who just retired from the state civil service and was heading home at about midnight when his vehicle veered into the river and drowned.
A source close to the family of the man said Amodu might have died as a result of cardiac arrest while on the steering as he was described as a teetatoller and an easy going man.
It was learnt that the combined efforts of FRSC officials, the police and some sympathisers who on Saturday morning helped pulled out the vehicle and Amodu from the river.