Two weeks ago, many families mourned,
following the death of no fewer than 80
people, including 57 passengers of a
commercial luxury bus, which collided with a
fuel tanker in Ugbogui, on the Benin-Lagos
expressway and burst into flames
The victims were burnt beyond
recognition and were given mass burial
last week. However, today the family of
Kenneth Chinedu Nwaokoro, a 24-year-old final
year student of Information Technology of
Caritas University, Enugu, who survived the
accident, is rejoicing.
This lucky young man, from Imo State, was
returning to Enugu to complete his final year
project, after visiting his brother in Lagos. He
is currently on admission at the Orthopaedic
Hospital, Enugu. Narrating what happened and
how he survived, Nwaokoro told Saturday Sun:
"When we left the park to embark on the
journey, our bus was half filled; so the driver
picked passengers along the road until the bus
was filled, except for the seat beside me, which
I did not allow anybody to occupy.
The excuse I gave was that somebody was
sitting there beside because I didn't want
disturbance and more so it was illegal for them
to pick passengers along the road. The journey
was smooth, so I slept off. "I was sleeping when
the accident happened. It was the sound of the
collision that woke me up. I woke up to see the
driver struggling with the steering to
manoeuvre the bus, but everywhere was already
on fire immediately the bus collided with the
tanker and there was commotion."
The struggle to escape On how the passengers
struggled to escape from impending death,
Nwaokoro said: "People where shouting and
running towards the entrance, but the door was
locked. The bus was one of The Young's new
buses. There was fire everywhere and people
were getting burnt. At first, I was confused,
but I convinced myself that I would survive. I
opened the window and jumped out.
The fire burnt my back and face. On landing, I
ran straight to a local hospital close to the
scene of the accident, where I had to part with
N2, 000 before they gave me first aid. I then
contacted my younger brother, who came and
took me to Enugu." Asked if there were other
passengers who escaped through the window
with him, he said: "I noticed that a guy jumped
after me, but he was seriously burnt.
I couldn't wait to check him because I was
burnt too and my hands were fractured." How
he bought the bus ticket Nwaokoro revealed
that his name was not on the manifest of the
bus because his younger sister bought the
ticket for him. According to him, the sister's
name was written on the manifest (seat 23)
because when it was her turn to pay for the
ticket, the official of the transport company
asked for her name and quickly wrote it on the
ticket before verifying if she was the one
travelling.
He revealed that when the ticket officer
realised the mistake, she said that since she
had written the name on the ticket, there was
nothing she could do. The only remedy offered
was to enter Nwaokoro's phone number against
his sister's name, while his sister's phone
number was entered as next of kin.
Sister corroborates his story The lucky
passenger's younger sister, Catherine
Onyinyechi Nwaokoro, said: "I went to the bus
centre with him and I bought the ticket. The
cashier presumed I was the one travelling and
issued the ticket in my name. When I saw the
mistake, I called her attention to it and she
said it was late as she could not alter the
ticket. She said that since the passenger was
my brother he could make use of the ticket.
That was why she wrote his phone number on
the passenger's list and my own as the next of
kin." No visit from the transport company When
asked if anybody from the transport company
The Young, had visited him, Nwaokoro said
nobody had. His elder brother, Emmanuel
Nwaokoro, told Saturday Sun that he visited
the company's branch office at Jibowu, Lagos,
where his brother boarded the bus and he was
referred to Maza Maza, in Lagos, where the
company's head office is located.
At the head office, the elder Nwaokoro said
when he told the manager that his younger
brother survived the accident, he expressed
surprise, saying they did not know anybody
survived. "When I told the manager about my
brother's survival, he said they didn't know
that somebody survived it. He told us to come
back in a week or two weeks' time to fill
insurance form and other relevant documents
for compensation."

Man!That was a good title,hell on earth.

Nigerians live in hell on earth on daily basis for things they could easily avoid.If only they just try.