The Nation Newspaper

Tag: 10 injured

  • Four dead, 10 injured in Ogun road accidents

    Four persons, including two women and a little girl, have died in separate car accidents on Ogun State corridor of the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway and Lagos – Ore expressway respectively.

    The first accident occurred when a speeding Toyota corolla saloon car skidded of its track atop the Ososa dual carriage bridge along Lagos – Ore Expressway and plunged into the river around midnight last Friday.

    Two persons – adult male and a girl-were said to have died in the process while 10 others, including seven children, sustained various degrees of injury.

    It was learnt the saloon car driven by a police sergeant with 12 passengers, including his seven children, lost control of the wheel while speeding and fell into the river.

    The second accident occurred yesterday at the Fidiwo – Oniworo stretch of the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway.

    It left two women dead and three others injured when two Sienna cars collided.

    The Public Relations Officer of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE), Babatunde Akinbiyi, confirmed the accidents to our correspondent.

    He said the one at Fidiwo involved two Sienna cars marked LSD 266 CK and AGL 554 EA. Akinbiyi said one of the Sienna cars had brake failure with the two vehicles coming from opposite direction on Lagos – Ibadan expressway when they collided.

    While one of the women died at the accident scene, the other died on the way to the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) Sagamu.

     

  • 30 killed, 10 injured in Lagos-Ibadan expressway auto crash

    30 killed, 10 injured in Lagos-Ibadan expressway auto crash

    THIRTY persons died after two Mazda passenger buses collided on the Lagos-Ibadan highway on Thursday night. Ten other persons were injured, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), said yesterday. The accident occurred at Km 95 close to the Elebolo Quarry Area in the Ibadan axis of the road. “The accident occurred at a construction site, and it resulted from route and speed violations,” FRSC spokesman, Mr Bisi Kazeem,said in Abuja.

    “This has further underscored the Corps Marshal, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi’s advice to motorists to avoid night journeys, be careful around construction sites and drive within approved speed limits,” he said. Rescue operations by FRSC officials, who arrived at the scene minutes after the incident, ended at 2:42 a.m. yesterday. Briefing newsmen yesterday at Ibadan on the accident, Oyo State Head of Operations, FRSC, Mr Cyril Mathew, explained that the accident occurred at about 8:30 pm, Thursday night as a result of over-speeding. The corpses of the victims were deposited at the Adeoyo Yemetu Hospital, Ibadan while the injured were taken to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, and Adeoyo Yemetu Hospital.

    He gave the details of the 30 casualties to include, 20 males and 10 female, all adults. While urging drivers to avoid night travelling, he noted that “no matter how bright the vehicles head light may be, they may not still be able to see clearly at night.” Speaking to reporters on the hospital bed, one of the survivors, Mr Busari Owolabi said the driver had been cautioned by the passengers many times but that the driver turned deaf hears until the accident occurred.

    An official who was at the rescue scene after the accident had occurred said the chances of alcoholism could not be ruled out of the cause of the accident as the two drivers of the buses “heavily smelled alcohol from their mouth and their entire body.”

    Hospital source also hinted that the survivors are also responding to treatment and with high hope of surviving. Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer, Superintendent Adekunle Ajisebutu said information available to the command gives the number of dead casualty as 31 while eleven were injured. He also confirmed that the commands police boss also visited the scene of the accident as well as the victims at the hospital yesterday.

  • Five dead, 10 injured in Auchi/Benin road crash

    Five dead, 10 injured in Auchi/Benin road crash

    Five persons died and 10 others were injured when two trailers rammed into three commercial vehicles on Auchi/Benin road yesterday.

    Eyewitnesses said axes were reportedly used to cut the trapped buses, one of which was said to belong to Big Joe Transport Company.

    The drivers of the two trucks reportedly fled the scene of the accident.

    The accident reportedly happened around 9am, effectively halting traffic on the busy highway for almost eight hours.

    Eyewitnesses said the trailers were trying to negotiate a steep bend from opposite directions but lost control and jammed the commercial vehicles in between crushing almost all the passengers to instant death.

    The spokesman of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Bisi Kazeem, confirmed the incident.

    He said at least six vehicles were involved in the crash, three of them without registration numbers.

    Kazeem stated five male survivors and three females were rushed to Hope Hospital, Auchi one male to Irrua hospital and two females to Agbede hospital.

  • Three killed, 10 injured in Ijegun riot

    Three killed, 10 injured in Ijegun riot

    •68 held as conductor is shot in Mushin

    Three scavengers were killed in Ijegun, a Lagos suburb by persons described as Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) members.
    Ten others are said to be critically ill in hospital after being shot.
    In Mushin, a bus conductor was hit by bullet during a gang war between Alamutu and Idi-Oro boys.
    The Ijegun killings sparked a riot as other scavengers gathered to fight OPC members who were allegedly demanding money from them for operating in the area.
    Their refusal to yield to the demand was said to have led to the killings.
    The sounds of gunshot was said to have forced schools and businesses to quickly shut down.
    The protesting scavengers expressed frustrations over alleged harassment, intimidation and extortion by the OPC members.
    They allegedly contacted their colleagues in other parts of the state, who came to join them to attack the OPC’s security post.
    They reportedly brandished dangerous weapons and were moving to destroy other OPC offices in the area when policemen led by Area M Commander, Austin Akika, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) arrived.
    It was gathered that over 10 police vans were stationed in the community and riot policemen deployed in strategic areas.
    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the injured were taken to Eniola Hospital, Isheri-Oshun.
    The traditional ruler of Ijegun, Oba Nureni Akinremi, told NAN that police men from Area ‘M’ Command were invited to quell the clash which disrupted commercial activities in the area for several hours.
    “I did not allow the clash to escalate so I called a combined police team from Isheri Osun, Ikotun and Area `M’, Idimu to restore normalcy,” he said.
    Scores were injured and many shops destroyed in the Mushin gang war. It took the intervention of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) and the police to restore calm.
    Sixty-eight persons were arrested over the skirmish. Six bags of Indian hemp were recovered from some of the suspects.
    They were paraded at the Lagos State Environment and Special Offences Enforcement Unit (Task Force) office in Oshodi.
    The 20-year-old conductor, Wariz Alimi, who was hit on the chest, was rushed to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) by our reporter. He said: “I just returned from Oshodi where I went to look for my boss, who is a driver. My friend told me that we should play around; as we were moving towards Idi-Oro, we discovered they were fighting and there were sounds of gunshot everywhere. I had not even gone far when a bullet brushed through my chest. Please don’t let me die. I don’t know the cause of the fight. My grandma is in Ibadan, I have to go there, don’t let me die,” he said.
    He pleaded to be discharged after being treated, despite having “deep wounds.”
    Alimi said cultists at Idi-Araba could lynch him if they knew a Mushin guy was admitted in LUTH.
    According to him, Mushin and Idi-Araba gangs have banned themselves from each other’s territory.
    He said he has no home in Lagos, but sleeps at a place called Ghetto in Idi-Oro.
    “My mum is dead and all I have is my Grandma. I have no links to any family member,” Alimi said.

  • 10 injured at protest in Akwa Ibom

    10 injured at protest in Akwa Ibom

    The police in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, yesterday detained three children of dead primary school teachers who protested non-payment of gratuities and pensions of their parents.
    Ten others were injured as policemen at the Government House gate used force to break the protest.
    Among those detained were leaders of the group: Kenneth Enobong, Benjamin Benson and Utibe Akpan.
    The police used tear gas and gun butt to scare the protesters.
    Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) D. R. Abibo allegedly ordered the use of Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) to drive the protesters from the Government House gate.
    Akibo was said to have ordered his officers and men to beat up the protesters.
    “Beat up these people. If you cannot beat them, let me beat them by my hand,” he was quoted as saying.
    The police chief allegedly watched as some of the protesters were bundled into a vehicle.
    Akibo said: “I told them to leave the road and stand by the side so that they can listen to me. but they disobeyed me as the Commissioner of Police. Who are they that they can’t listen or obey a simple instruction?”
    The ACP represented the police at the commission of enquiry on the collapsed Reigners Bible Church International in Uyo.
    “We are handling this kind of case at the commission and I was trying to help them in their case. But they refused to obey me,” he said before leaving the scene in his Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV).
    It was learnt a police Inspector ordered the other policemen to drive the other protesters away – as far as Ibom Plaza or beyond.
    Reporters covering the protest, including the Chairman of Correspondents’ Chapel, Denis Udoma, were attacked with tear gas and ordered to leave the scene with the protesters.
    The protesters, under the aegis of Next-of-Kin-of Late Primary School Teachers (NKLPST) in Akwa Ibom State, said they were forced into the peaceful agitation following government’s alleged insensitivity to their plight.
    The group’s spokesman Pastor Aniekan Thompson said they resorted to the protest when negotiations with the government failed.
    According to him, the affected teachers had served the government since 1999, lived and died while waiting for their entitlements.
    Thompson said several appeals were made to the government and other officials, including the Head of Service (HoS), Mrs. Ekerebong Akpan, to no avail.
    He said: “After numerous protests, a committee on pensions, headed by the Leader of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Sir Udo Kirian Akpan, invited us for a meeting and we met on August 29 and September 19, last year, and agreed ‘…that since government cannot pay all the backlog of entitlements at once’, it will start paying in batches, from the September allocation. They said we should not protest again, that it was embarrassing to government.”
    The spokesman said government’s failure to settle the issues led to the death of many members and the educational pursuit of their children.
    Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) State Chairman Etim Ukpong said he advised Governor Udom Emmanuel to use the N14.5 billion Paris Club refunds to settle such cases.
    But the governor, two weeks ago, took the matter to the House of Assembly, asking the lawmakers to include the Paris Club cash in the proposed budget of N365.201 billion.