Chijioke Agwu, Abakaliki
Fourteen dead bodies were yesterday recovered from the Ezeiyiaku River in Akaeze, Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, following the fatal auto accident that occurred on Friday night.
This followed the recovery of the bus by divers brought into the state from neighbouring states to aid in the search and rescue of the victims.
The Sun had reported how a bus carrying over 30 passengers plunged into the river along the Akaeze axis of the Afikpo-Okigwe highway.
Five of the passengers were later rescued, but one of them, a woman, later died at the hospital.
Our correspondent gathered that the victims were members of the Christ Peculiar Assembly Church, Enugu, who were returning from the burial of one of their members at Owutu Edda, in Afikpo South Local Government Area of the state.
The Chairman of the local government, Onyebuchi Ogbadu confirmed the recovery of the dead bodies to our correspondent.
He said that the state government had to bring in divers from Rivers and Cross River states to help in the search of the bus.
“The divers were able to locate the bus and pushed it up to enable the crane to pull it out”, he said.
The chairman said that they are still searching for the remaining passengers aboard the bus.
Meanwhile, Governor David Umahi has visited the scene of the incident and commiserated with the families of the victims.
The governor and his team were at the scene of the incident at about 3:45 p.m yesterday.