With about 15 minutes to the New Year, 12 lives were reportedly lost in a road crash on Monday near the Bola Ige International Market, Gbagi, along the new Ife-Ibadan Expressway in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Punch gathered that the victims were crushed to death by a truck coming from the Iwo Road area, which reportedly rammed into commercial buses and other vehicles by the entrance to the market.
Although eyewitness could not say if the truck had suffered break failure or if the affected buses were carelessly parked on the road, sources confirmed that two people initially survived the accident and were taken to a nearby hospital, while about 12 other passengers were said to have died immediately.
Apart from the commercial buses, a Toyota Camry and Nissan Micra cars were also said to have been crushed by the truck.
Sources said that many of the victims were going to churches for the crossover service in the Iyana-Agbala and Egbeda areas of the city.
The dead victims included a pregnant woman, identified simply as Mrs Funmilayo, who was said to be on her way to her in-laws’, a bus driver identified as ‘Orobo Baba Welder’, and many others who could not be identified as of the time of filing this report.
Confirming the accident, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Adekunle Ajisebutu, however, put the casualty figure at 11.
She noted that aside the nine, who died on the spot, three others lost their lives on Tuesday, out of the 10 injured victims, who were taken to the Toun Specialist Hospital, Iwo Road, for medical attention.
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
RIP to the dead…