29 killed, nine injured in Kogi, Borno auto crash

No fewer than 29 lives were lost in two different road accidents in Kogi and Borno states on Thursday and Friday respectively.

Nine other people also sustained various degrees of injuries in the accidents involving three commuter buses and two trucks.

In Kogi State, 14 persons, including five children, lost their lives in an auto crash on Anyingba-Ajaokuta Road, leaving nine others injured.

The Kogi State Sector Commander of the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr Solomon Aghure, who confirmed this to newsmen in Lokoja yesterday, said that three vehicles (two trucks and a commercial bus) were involved in the accident which occurred on Thursday evening.

He said the three vehicles were travelling on the same lane inwards Anyingba when a truck suddenly hit the bus from the behind, resulting in the multiple crash.

Aghure said the bus, including the passengers, were trapped between the two trucks before his men arrived at the scene for the rescue operation, which he said lasted hours.

He lamented that 14 of the 23 persons involved in the accident died on the spot, while nine others sustained various degrees of injury.

According to him, the dead included three female children, two male children, eight women and one man, while three men, one woman and five children luckily survived the accident with injuries.

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

He attributed the cause of the accident to possible brake failure but said further investigation would be carried out to determine the actual cause.

In Borno State, 15 people lay dead on Friday after two commuter buses collided on the Maiduguri – Damaturu Road.

The Borno Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr Sanusi Ibrahim, said the accident occurred near Mainok village in Kaga Local Government Area.

“I just got the report from our unit in Beneshiek that two buses carrying 15 passengers including the drivers were involved in a fatal collision and that all the 15 people in the two buses died,” Ibrahim told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Eight of the victims were female while the rest were male, he said. All the corpses were taken to the General Hospital, Beneshiek, headquarters of Kaga Local Government.

Ibrahim said the driver of the bus lost control because of a burst tyre, resulting in the collision.