The Nation Newspaper

Tag: road crash

  • Lawyer dies in London after Lagos road crash

    Lawyer dies in London after Lagos road crash

    When 25-year-old Bristish citizen Doyin Sarah Fagbenro left the United Kingdom to work in Nigeria, little did her family know it was her final trip.

    The young law graduate from the Queen Mary’s University, London, passed on yesterday in a United Kingdom Hospital, five days after she was involved in a motor accident in Lagos, Nigeria.

    DSF, as she was fondly called, was one of the victims of the accident that occurred around Lekki Phase 1 last Sunday.

    She was said to have been driving her new Toyota Corolla car to church, given to her by her new employers, when a commercial bus rammed into her on the busy expressway.

    The driver fled the scene after the accident. Miss Fagbenro was rushed to the Lagoon Hospital, where she spent some days, before she was flown out to the United Kingdom.

    Unfortaunetly, DSF, who according to her cousin, Ken Davidson, has spent not more than two years in Nigeria, died, bringing the death toll in the accident to five.

    In a tribute to the late DSF on his Facebook page, Davidson said she was a victim of the “reckless and probably high on drinks/drugs ‘Danfo’ Driver.”

    He said her funeral is this weekend, narrating the excruciating pain her family, including her aged grandparents were going through.

    Davidson wrote: “Oh death! Where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Another Casualty of a broken and failed State. Your story is particularly gut wrenching as it is equally heartbreaking.

    “You spent near enough all but two of your 25 years on earth in the country of your birth, the United Kingdom, where your parents and entire family reside. You were born, bred and educated in the United Kingdom.

    “But two years ago, immediately after you graduated, you elected to visit Nigeria where your grandparents reside – both of whom are in their mid eighties. You signed up for the National Youth Service having freshly graduated with a sterling First Degree in Law and a post graduate immediately afterwards.

    “You were headhunted by an Energy Firm before you completed your NYSC and a presto you gallantly announced to your nervous parents – dad a Diplomat with the United Nations based in Italy and mum a Pharmacist based in the United Kingdom, your country of Birth – that you were going to permanently relocate and make Nigeria your permanent abode. Your grandparents were ecstatic, you being their most favourite grand daughter.

    “You were a straight A student right from when you passed your GCSEs through to when you excelled in your A’levels…so much so that Prestigious Queen Mary’s London University snapped you to study Law. You missed a First by whisker’s. Nevertheless you made your mark all the way through.

    “Then it all came crashing down. What was supposed to be a routine journey to Church on a relatively sombre, otherwise uneventful Sunday morning on the Lekki/Ajah Expressway around the Lekki Phase 1 approach, turned into a living and eternal nightmare for those of us left struggling to pick up the pieces. “Our lives changed forever, never to be the same again.  A victim of the reckless and probably high on drinks/drugs ‘Danfo’ Driver. The most galling of the entire episode was the fact that the driver of that Danfo survived unscathed, ran away from the scene leaving a trail of death and destruction in his wake.

    “Four people died at the scene. Your New Toyota Corolla was a crumpled wreck. But the Fighter that you were, despite massive injuries, you fought and fought and fought. Your Dad, via his status at the United Nations, got you into Lagoon Hospital where you were for a few days.

    “When it became clear that the extent of your injuries was too severe for the local facilities here in Nigeria, an air ambulance was scrambled from the United Kingdom to get you much needed specialist care in the United Kingdom.

    “Your tireless mum who flew in from the United Kingdom, barely 48 hours after the accident, accompanied you in the air ambulance. Still we prayed and prayed and hoped for the best. Sadly, we lost you a day after you arrived the United Kingdom.”

    Continuing, Davidson explained that the surgeons in the United Kingdom did their best but death overcame.

    He decried the frustration her friends felt when they could not get any information a few days after the accident.

    “Then it struck me how cheap human lives are in our country today. Tragedy of a nation. A nation pushing 60 yet still in diappers. Heaven knows how many more lives have been prematurely terminated on that same stretch of road and thousands of more roads up and down the country since then. I digress.

    “Best  leave the Inquest for another day. As it is said in Yoruba “Eni kan lo mo”.

    “The pain is palpably raw as it is numbling. We asked again and again, Why you? Why You? If only you had stayed on in the country of your birth, If only…so many questions but very few answers. “Your parents, your grandparents, Oh! Your grandma, with whom you celebrated her 80th birthday over here in Nigeria a few years ago has refused to eat since she was informed of your passing nearly a week ago…All she repeatedly does is wail, wail to space “God take me instead, give my granddaughter back to Nigeria.

    “Nigeria needs her, her parents need her. God take me. God take me.”

    “These are indeed extremely perilous times. And so it was that having just spent barely a few weeks in Nigeria after a prolonged winter holiday and christmas in the United Kingdom with family and friends, I now find myself in the rather unenviable position of scrambling for the next flight out back to the United Kingdom just so that I can attend your Funeral this weekend…

    “DSF as you were very fondly called, you touched so many lives in the quarter century, (twenty five years only!) you ran your race on earth. You were considerate to the end so much so that you waited until you got back home – nearer your parents and many siblings – before you finally bade the World Farewell.

    “Doyin Sarah Fagbenro, My learned friend in the Profession, my lil sister, my cousin, sleep well till we meet again. O Death! Where is Thy Sting!”

  • Five die on Lagos-Ibadan expressway accident

    Five die on Lagos-Ibadan expressway accident

    Five persons died on Tuesday in an accident involving a Mercedes Benz truck and a Mazda bus at Sagamu on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Ogun.

    The Sector Commander of the FRSC in Ogun, Mr Adegoke Adetunji, who confirmed the incident, said that the bus lost control and ran into the truck which was also on motion from the rear.

    Adetunji told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abeokuta that 23 persons were involved in the accident, with five confirmed dead while 16 sustained injuries.

    “We went to the scene and met the crash which involved the truck and the Mazda bus.

    “A Mazda bus with registration number APP36XA and a Mercedes Benz truck with registration number GNN774XA were travelling to Ibadan before they rammed into each other.

    “We understand that the bus, which was on a high speed, lost control and rammed into the moving truck and was torn into pieces because of its bad shape.

    “The bus was not in good shape and was not supposed to be on the road.

    “Motorist should obey the speed limit and ensure that their vehicles are properly maintained. They should also install speed limit device in their vehicles,’’ he said.

    Adetunji said that the corpses of the victims had been deposited at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital mortuary in Sagamu while the injured were also being treated in the health facility.

  • How DVC, son, four others died in road crash

    How DVC, son, four others died in road crash

    FATHER and son parted ways in Lagos on Sunday, with plans of reuniting in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, for the Eid-El-Kabir celebrations.

    But it turned out to be the last time that AbdulAzeez would see his father, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor-designate of Fountain University, Osogbo, Prof. Abdul Hakeem Mobolaji alive.

    The professor of Econometrics died in an accident on the Lagos-Ibadan Express way, with his 14-year-old son, Muhammad.

    He left for Ibadan after a meeting in Ijeshatedo, Lagos on Sunday.

    With him in his black Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) were his sons – the late Muhammad and Abdul-Hafiz – and a friend, Mr Abdul-Rasheed Attah, a lawyer.

    A passenger bus rammed into the late Mobolaji’s SUV after overtaking another vehicle on the narrow road. The road had been partitioned by the contractor working on it.

    [ad id=”403656″]The late Mobolaji, who drove, and Muhammad died on the spot. Attah and the late Mobolaji’s second son, AbdulHafiz were injured.

    Attah immediately called a relative and gave his phone to a woman to inform the person of the accident.

    Shortly after, he and Abdul Hafiz went into a coma.

    The Nation learnt that four persons, including the bus driver also died. Many passengers broke their legs.

    The late Mobolaji and his son were on Monday buried in Akinyele Local Government Area, Oyo State.

    Thousands of people attended the funeral.

    Abdul Azeez described his father as the bread winner of the family.

    He said: “Who will take care of us now that he is late? I was expecting to link up with him at Fountain University today (Monday). I was calling his phone on Sunday when I didn’t hear from him whether he has reached Ibadan where he was expected to pick other family members but he wasn’t picking his calls. I called him severally up to 30 times but no one is picking the call. I called the MD of Al Barakah Microfinance Bank to tell him that I have been calling my father but he was not picking his call that he should help me call him but later he came back with some people to announce his death that Allah has taken him back. I pray to Almighty Allah to grant the family the fortitude to bear the loss because he was the bread winner of the family and no one else.”

    The late Mobolaji was said to have delivered a lecture at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), on Saturday, and came to Lagos for a meeting. He hailed from Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, and joined Fountain University from the University of Ilorin, where he was a Senior Lecturer and Postgraduate Coordinator.

    Described as a respected teacher, the late Mobolaji was a consultant to the 7th National Assembly and several other institutions including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on economics matters.

  • Road crash: 14 burnt to death in Kwara

    Road crash: 14 burnt to death in Kwara

    Fourteen persons  were burnt to death yesterday in an accident involving a fuel tanker and a truck.

    About 14 others sustained varying degrees of burnt injuries after the two vehicles collided on the Ogbomoso-Jebba Road in Ilorin.

    The truck, which was loaded with cattle and  passengers, was said to be coming from the North while the tanker was heading towards the opposite direction when the accident occurred at dawn.

    The Kwara State Sector Commander of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mary Wakawa, confirmed the incident.

    She said: “One of the heavy duty vehicles veered off its lane and collided with the other. This was around 5am.

    “Both vehicles went on flame. Thirteen died on the spot while one died in the hospital. We rushed 14 injured passengers with severe burns to University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH).

    “Already, with the support of the Kwara State Transport Management Agency(KWTMA), we had evacuated the wreck.”

    Wakawa, while cautioning the road users against excessive speed, night driving and driving exhaustion, said the 13 charred bodies of the victims had been given a mass burial.

    She attributed the accident to exhaustion, adding: “Our drivers should stop long driving overnight. They need to rest to avoid human errors on the roads.”

  • Road crash: 14 burnt to death in Kwara

    Road crash: 14 burnt to death in Kwara

    Fourteen persons  were burnt to death yesterday in an accident involving a fuel tanker and a truck.

    About 14 others sustained varying degrees of burnt injuries after the two vehicles collided on the Ogbomoso-Jebba Road in Ilorin.

    The truck, which was loaded with cattle and  passengers, was said to be coming from the North while the tanker was heading towards the opposite direction when the accident occurred at dawn.

    The Kwara State Sector Commander of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mary Wakawa, confirmed the incident.

    She said: “One of the heavy duty vehicles veered off its lane and collided with the other. This was around 5am.

    “Both vehicles went on flame. Thirteen died on the spot while one died in the hospital. We rushed 14 injured passengers with severe burns to University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH).

    “Already, with the support of the Kwara State Transport Management Agency(KWTMA), we had evacuated the wreck.”

    Wakawa, while cautioning the road users against excessive speed, night driving and driving exhaustion, said the 13 charred bodies of the victims had been given a mass burial.

    She attributed the accident to exhaustion, adding: “Our drivers should stop long driving overnight. They need to rest to avoid human errors on the roads.”

  • Two feared dead in road accident in Cross River

    Two people are feared dead following an accident along the Calabar-Ugep Highway, when a 911 truck conveying cows from the northern part of the country skidded and fell on the road, it was learnt Thursday.

    A resident of the area who witnessed the accident said it occurred around 10am at Ehom Central in Biase local government in Cross River State.

    The deceased it was gathered were two Hausa men who were in the truck – the driver and his assistant.

    Some people who were in an oncoming vehicle were injured when they ran into the fallen truck it was gathered.

    Several cows were also killed in the accident and others injured. They littered the road causing up traffic jam for hours.

    Those injured were rushed to the Ugep General Hospital.

    It was suspected that the truck driver who was killed in the accident must have fallen asleep while driving.

  • Union leader injured in road crash

    Union leader injured in road crash

    THE president of the Students’ Union Govrenment (SUG) of the University of Calabar (UNICAL), Bassey Eka, has been injured in a road accident on Akamkpa-Ikom Highway.

    The accident, according to an eyewitness, occurred at about 1:30pm on Valentine’s Day. There were four others in the vehicle.

    The vehicle was damaged beyond repair, while Eka sustained a head injury.

    When CAMPUSLIFE visited the hospital where Eka was receiving treatment, he thanked God for saving his life. He also thanked the management and students for their prayers.

    Eka told our reporter he was attendimng a wedding at Obubra when the accident occurred.

     

  • Family of four dies in road crash

    Family of four dies in road crash

    FOUR members of the Abdulkadir Wambai family of Lafia Municipal Local Government Area of Nasarawa State have died in a road accident.

    The victims are Mr Ahmad Abdulkadir Wambai, his wife Khadijat and two sons, Usman and Isma’il. They were on their way to Lafia when the vehicle in which they were travelling collided with a Bedford lorry.

    The late Usman and the late Khadijat were 200-Level students of the Nasarawa State University in Keffi (NSUK). They were in high spirits when they wrote their final paper last Monday. They were eager to go back home and spend the semester break with other members of the family.

    On the day they were to travel, the late Khadijat got a call from her husband, who informed her of his coming to Keffi with his daughter, who just got admitted into a pre-degree programme at the university. The husband, it was gathered, urged the late Khadijat and the late Usman to delay their trip and promised to take them back to Lafia in his car for their holiday.

    On their way to Lafia, their car broke down on the Akwanga-Lafia highway. After efforts to repair the vehicle failed, the family parked it at a police station on the expressway and joined a commercial bus.

    A few minutes into the journey, the bus had a head-on collision with the lorry coming from the opposite direction. The bus summersaulted severally before bursting into flames. All the 13 passengers on board were burnt to death.

    CAMPUSLIFE gathered that a member of the family, Musa Abdulkadir Wambai, broke the sad news to other family members after he was informed by sympathisers on the scene. Musa, it was learnt, immediately called another member of the family, Mr Ahmad Sulaiman Wambai, who is a popular politician in Lafia.

    CAMPUSLIFE learnt that the deceased were identified through their identity cards found on the scene. “The sympathisers, who rushed to the scene, saw our family name on the victims’ identity cards. One of them called me to confirm if I am related to the accident victims. I put a call through to our elder brother, who informed me that somebody had called him too,” Musa explained.

    He added: “We arrived on the scene at about 12 midnight and met the vehicles still burning with Ahmad’s half body by the side of the burning vehicles. The villagers told us that when the accident happened, Ahmad made efforts to jump out of the vehicle but his legs were trapped in the bus.”

    An eyewitness, who did not say his name, said: “We tried to rescue him from the raging flame but his legs were trapped in the vehicle; he shouted repeatedly: “La’ila ha illallahu Muhammadu rasulullahi, sallallahu alaihin wa’salam”, which means “there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah”.

    The witness said the late Ahmad continued to recite the Quranic expression until he died.

    Musa told our correspondent that the victims were given mass burial the following day because none of them could be identified.

    The late Usman reportedly phoned a friend when his late father’s car developed fault on the expressway. Muhammad Usman, a close friend and course mate of the late Usman, said he received the news of his friend’s death with shock.

    He said: “We were very close. I could have been on the bus with him because he wanted me to join his family in the car. Later I called him to say I could not travel because of other engagements. As they were moving, Usman still kept in touch. In short, he even called and informed me that their car had a problem and that they were boarding another bus to complete the journey. I was shocked to be informed that my friend is no more. I cannot imagine how my life would be without him. He was one person I knew, who could not hurt anybody. He was an upright and complete gentleman.”

    The late Khadijat’s course mate, who did not want her name in print, said the class would miss her because she was a friend to all. “She was down-to-earth and never fought with anybody. Even though she was elderly, she played with everyone without discriminating,” she said.

    The late Usman was a student of Geography Education; the late Khadijat was studying Islamic Religious Studies.

    Officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) told CAMPUSLIFE that the accident occurred when the truck veered off its lane and moved to the other side of the expressway.

     

     

  • Eight Abia PDP members die in road crash

    Eight members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia State on Tuesday died in an accident on the Awka-Enugu Expressway.

    The accident occurred at 11pm when they were returning to Umuahia from Awka, Anambra State, where they monitored the party’s ward congresses.

    The 18-passenger bus, which had 16 on board, was said to have skidded off the road and plunged into a ditch.

    Five passengers died on the spot. Three others died at the hospital.

    Some of the bodies have been brought to Umuahia and deposited at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia.

    The driver of the PDP bus, Sunday Iroegbu, said they were driving in a convoy when the accident occurred.

    Iroegbu, who sustained a minor injury on his left wrist, blamed the accident on over-speeding of the pilot vehicle.

    He said some of the vehicles were speeding at 120 kilometres per hour and above and it was drizzling.

    Iroegbu said he trailed other vehicles and relied on their brake lights to keep up with them when the bus suddenly veered off the road and landed in a ditch.

    The Medical Director, Dr Abali Chuku, said four victims were in a critical condition and were receiving treatment at the intensive care unit.

    He called for the establishment of a trauma centre at the hospital to cater for accident cases.

    The government dispatched two ambulances to Enugu to bring the survivors back to the state.

    Governor Theodore Orji visited the survivors.

    The PDP Deputy National Chairman (Southeast), Austin Akobundu, declined comments, saying the party was mourning.

  • 11 burnt to death in road crash

    11 burnt to death in road crash

    Eleven people were yesterday burnt to death in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, following an accident at Macmillan, near Soka/Sanyo on the Ibadan/Lagos Expressway.

    Sympathisers wept over the tragedy.

    A thick smoke from the burning bus covered the atmosphere, attracting residents and passersby.

    It was a gory sight as the victims were burnt beyond recognition.

    According to an eyewitness account, a commercial Mazda bus was coming from Ogijo in Ogun State and heading for Beere in Ibadan. The occupants were to attend the Wolimat (an Islamic school graduation) of a relation.

    It was learnt that most of the occupants were dressed in a uniform-Ankara bought for the occasion.

    The source said the propeller of the bus pulled off and hit the fuel tank, catching fire.

    The driver of the bus, in an attempt to save the situation, reportedly veered off the road and hit a heap of sand by the roadside.

    The source said immediately the bus stopped, the driver and the two passengers in the front jumped down and escaped, but others were not lucky as the door of the bus was locked.

    Eight adults and three children died in the fire. Thirteen others, including the driver, sustained various degrees of burns and were taken to the Adeoyo Hospital and University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan.

    Confirming the accident, the Assistant Corps Commander and Unit Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Oluyole Ibadan/Lagos toll gate, Mr. Adeoye Sanya, said: “We were informed of the accident around 1pm. We rescued some of the victims and took them to hospitals.”