Gov in auto crash - Bank manager, 8 others die in accidents

From Jude Ossai and Uchechukwu Olisah
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
IT was Providence that saved the Anambra State governor, Mr. Peter Obi, as his car was involved in an accident on Monday on his way to this year’s Igbo Day celebration.







In other three tragic incidents, a 30-year-old bank manager and eight others died in three auto accidents on Monday. Governor Obi, who recounted the accident at the Michael Okpara Stadium venue of the Igbo Day celebration, disclosed that he was saved by God as his vehicle was hit by another car along the Onitsha-Enugu express road. He disclosed that his vehicle was badly damaged.

He also disclosed that the accident occurred because of bad roads as the driver of the other vehicle tried to avoid a pothole when he swerved to his convoy’s side and hit his vehicle.

Nine persons, including a 30-year-old branch manager of FinBank (formerly FirstInland Bank), University of Port Harcourt branch, Mr. Stanley Okoye, died in separate accidents in Delta State and Abuja.

The FinBank manager died on the Warri-Ughelli road when his vehicle, Honda Civic with registration number AQ 25 YEN plunged into the Ekakpamre River, near Eruemukowhoarien in Ughelli North Local Government Area of the state, a development that left all the occupants of the car dead.

Similarly, four persons perished in multiple accidents which involved four commercial vehicles on Asaba-Isele-Ukwu road, also in Delta State.

The Benin Zonal Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr. Zakari Ndah, who confirmed both accidents, said the one involving Mr. Okoye might have occurred because of lack of concentration since it took place around 10:30 a.m. when traffic was light.

The FRSC boss added that the commission, with the help of local divers and the use of a crane by men from Setraco Construction Company Limited, was able to recover the body of the bank manager and that of another occupant of the car.

He, however, said they were yet to recover the body of a third occupant of the vehicle. According to Ndah, persons who died in the multiple vehicle accidents on the Asaba-Isele-Ukwu road were killed on the spot while several others sustained varying degrees of injuries.

The FRSC commander decried the attitude of drivers who often disregarded safety regulations, especially on major highways, just as he urged drivers to always concentrate whenever they were at the wheel, adding that it was risky to answer or make phone calls while driving.

The corpse of the late bank manager was said to have been deposited at one of the hospitals at Ughelli, while the corpses of those who lost their lives along the Asaba-Isele-Ukwu road were said to have been taken to the Federal Medical Centre mortuary, Asaba.

The Eid-el-Fitr festivities in Abuja were also marred by a ghastly motor accident in which two men died. The vehicle conveying the men who were said to be on their way to supply drinks at Mpape, a suburb of Abuja, crashed into a parked earth-moving machine at a construction site near the NICON junction.

Mr. Sunday Oghenekaro, FRSC’s Head of Operations at the FCT Sector Command, told NAN that the driver and his boy lost their lives in the accident. Oghenekaro said the vehicle with registration number XK 925 JJJ, was conveying empty crates of beer when the accident occurred.

“The driver was on full speed and the bus ran into a stationary construction vehicle. “The motor boy fell off the bus and died instantly, while the driver died inside the bus,’’ Oghenekaro said.

He said that their bodies had been taken to Maitama General Hospital, adding that the vehicle was damaged beyond repairs. Mr. Ugochukwu Ukwuoma, who claimed to be working in the deceased’s company, told NAN that the two had supplied drinks to the company’s customers at Mpape and were returning to unload the empty crates in the Durumi area of Abuja.

http://odili.net/news/source/2008/sep/30/612.html

sad news.