No fewer than eight passengers were burnt to death on Saturday night
in an auto crash along Bida-Minna road involving a trailer and a Toyota
Hiace bus belonging to Niger State Transport Company (NSTA).
Four of the accident victims are members of the family of the Pastor
of the Potter Porch Church Minna. They were his wife, Mrs. Hellen
Samuel, her three children, Saviour, Insight and Purity.
The accident occured at about 8 pm on Saturday at Kakanpegi village, about 55 kilometres to Minna, Niger state capital.
Eye witness Alhaji Hamisu Ndajiwo told The Nation that the NSTA bus
in the cause of avoiding a bad portion of the Bida – Minna road ran into
a trailer, crashed into a nearby push before the vehicles went in
flames having all but one passenger burnt to death.
Another eyewitness, Malam Ibrahim Hussaini, a staff of Niger State
Emergency Management Agency said the inferno that ensued after crash
rendered the villagers and other motorist helpless in rescuing the
victims.
According to him, “I was at the scene of the accident few moment it
happened. Oh my God we saw people burning before our very eyes and we
cannot do anything about it.
“Only one passenger, a boy young boy who was badly injured escaped
the inferno and he was crying and asking us to help to save his mother
from the burning vehicle but we were helpless as the blaze was too much,
for anyone brave it,” Hussaini recalled.
He further said that the number of the victims would have been high
but for some passengers that dropped at Bida. The NSTA bus left Lagos
for Minna on Saturday morning.
Confirming the casuality figure the Special Adviser to the Niger
state Governor on Emergency and Disaster Management , Mohammed Shaba
said that eight bodies have been recovered from the scene of the
accident, even though the bus was believed to have carried 18 passengers
from Lagos.
Shaba also said that the bodies of the victims have been deposited at the General Hospital Minna.
The NISEMA boss said that investigation has shown that the NSTA bus
ran into the trailer whose head lamps were off and not as a result of
bad road.
“We have established that the NSTA bus ran into the trailer because
the trailer had none of its head lamps on. The accident was not as a
result of bad road but the failure of the driver of the trailer, who is
currently on the run to put on its vehicle’s head lamps,” Shaba told our
Correspondent on phone on Sunday.
He further said that only seven bodies of the victims are now in
mortuary as the driver of the NSTA was buried yesterday morning in
accordance with Islamic rites.
Shaba also said that state government would pick the medical bill of
the only survivor, adding that the government would shoulder the funeral
rites of all the victims and pay compensation to the families of the
victims.
Though Sunday service held at the Potter Porch Church Minna but
church members were in grief mood over the loss of their pastor’s wife
and kids as the widower, Pastor Ibrahim Samuel maintained sober mood
while the service lasted.
He eventually broke the news to his congregation at the end of the service
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