Posted by By IBRAHIM BARDE, Kano on
No fewer than 56 people traveling in a luxury bus, with registration No. XB 599 UKP lost their lives in the early hours of Sunday when the bus crashed few kilometers from Kano.
No fewer than 56 people traveling in a luxury bus, with registration No. XB 599 UKP lost their lives in the early hours of Sunday when the bus crashed few kilometers from Kano.
Daily Sun gathered that the bus, which was traveling from Lagos to Maiduguri Borno State, skidded off the Tamburawa bridge, 20 kilometers from Kano, killing 56 people and injuring 12 others. Among those who died is a major in the Nigerian Army and a female youth corps member.
According to the Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Kano, Malam Ahmad Ibrahim: 'We have 43 death and 12 people injured. The injured are now at the Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital, Kano. This figure is, however, inconclusive. Almost all the dead bodies have been taken to the mortuary because when we received the signal that this happened, we wasted no time in rushing here to carry out a rescue operation. Right now, there are still some dead bodies, mangled in front of the bus and as you can see, we are trying to retrieve them.
'Among the dead are seven female. That is all I can say, but yes, we have identities of some people. There is Major Julius Omega of Nigeria Army Depot, Zaria. There is a female corps member. There is Rebecca Musa from Borno and there is Abubakar Abdu's brother who also died. We found N60,000.00 on the dead man and this boy claimed that he was his brother and they are there at Murtala Muhammed Hospital. There is also one girl child who also died.
'So far, these are the people we can identify at the moment, but most of those who died in the accident are traders, young thriving Nigerians who had bought goods in Lagos and perhaps, going to resell at their business outlets in Borno. This is merely speculative at the moment. The vehicle was traveling from Lagos to Maiduguri and the accident happened by 5.40 this morning (Sunday). We can attribute the cause of this accident to the stress of night journey. Night journey is the cause of the accident. The driver had stress. He slept off, thereby losing control of the vehicle and the accident occurred," he said.
Reacting to the accident, in a statement through the Commissioner of Health, Dr. Sanda Mohammed, Kano State government said: 'Yes, the rescue team was able to recover 56 bodies from the scene of the accident. There are five others that are alive, so that makes a total of 61 people that were on the bus, out of which are the 56 dead bodies. We were able to establish the identity of 23 bodies through identity cards and other relevant documents that could be associated with the victims. The mortuary of the Murtala Muhammed Hospital is designed to serve the hospital, so it could contain the whole bodies taken there, but we were able to mobilize Nasarawa Hospital and Aminu Kano Hospital.
Some of the corpses taken to the Military Specialist Hospital, Kano were returned. I don't know the reason for that, but we will find out."
Meanwhile, Governor Ibrahim Shekarau has visited the wounded in the hospital and commiserated with the family of those who lost their lives in the accident.