There were fears last night that mother of the First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, died in an auto crash on the Yenagoa-Port Harcourt Expressway yesterday. This is coming at a time when 25 peoples were also killed in an auto accident on Benin-Lagos and Lagos-Ibadan expressways yesterday.

Daily Sun gathered that the tragedy befell the family of Lazarus Iwari-Oba, in Okrika, Rivers State , when the vehicle carrying Mrs. Jonathan’s mother, Charity, crashed at Ebele at about 4pm yesterday. Sources told our reporter that the First Lady’s mum died on the spot and her body had been deposited at Kpayama mortuary at Mile 1 by Hon Evans Bipi, a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, in company with security operatives.

Daily Sun gathered that the body of the deceased was deposited at the hospital at about 6pm yesterday. When Daily Sun contacted the police for comments, nobody could confirm or deny the report. The Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety (FRSC), Dr. Kayode Olatunji declined to make comments.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 24 persons lost their lives yesterday in two separate motor accidents that occurred along the Lagos-Ibadan and the Benin-Ore-Lagos Expressways, while one other person was crushed to death by a petroleum tanker in Owerri, the Imo State capital. The accident on the Benin-Ore-Lagos in which 18 persons were burnt beyond recognition involved a truck and a Peace Mass Transit commercial bus at Okada town.

The truck said to have been laden with gravels reportedly lost one of its tyres and collided with the Peace Mass Transit bus said to be travelling from Onitsha to Lagos. The impact of the collision was said to have caused fuel spill resulting in the fire that burnt the passengers beyond recognition.

Two persons were rescued from the truck by a combined team of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) officials, policemen and sympathisers who had a hectic time removing the charred bodies with axes.

The other accident in which six people lost their lives occurred at Kilometre 114, Lagos-Ibadan Expresway, involving a commercial Mazda bus with registration number Oyo XE 675 LUY and a Mack truck with registration number Lagos XX 455 GGE. The 14-passenger bus, according to eyewitness, suddenly veered off the road and hit the truck parked by the roadside, which eventually led to the deaths. The victims were four males and two females, who were among the passengers.

On the other hand, the petrol tanker reportedly lost control and crushed a cart pusher, who was unloading items from a parked Golf Saloon car into his cart, before crossing over the high road median into the Owerri General Post Office on the other side of the road.

The tanker with registration numberXD929WER and owned oil firm entered the ever-busy Douglas Road from Okigwe Road in Owerri when the accident occurred. Confirming the accident yesterday Edo State Sector Commander of the FRSC, Kenneth Nwaegbe said among the dead were 15 adults and two kids.

He said the commercial bus, which left the commercial town of Onitsha in Anambra State, was coming from Benin to Lagos when it had a head-on collision with a truck on one side of the road under construction. “What happened was that the Mark truck carrying gravel and was coming from Ore to Benin when it lost one of its tyres. And the Toyota bus was coming from Benin to Lagos when the two collided,” he said.

As at press time, the badly burnt bodies of the passengers had been deposited at the Universiry of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) morgue. Following the accident, hundreds of passengers travelling to various destinations on the dual carriage Lagos-Ore-Benin Expressway were yesterday stranded for several hours resulting from a gridlock from accident.

Also, the Assistant Corps Commander of the FRSC Oluyole Unit 1, Mr. Sanya Adeoye who confirmed the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway accident said the cause of the crash could not be immediately ascertained but however stated that they believed the Mazda bus had a mechanical fault. He said the unit in conjunction with the rescue team of the state ambulance service and team of ‘Operation Burst’ were on hand to jointly rescue some victims while the remains of the dead victims had been deposited at the Adeoyo State Hospital morgue, Ring Road, Ibadan.

In Owerri, when Daily Sun visited the scene where the tanker crushed a man, men of the Security and Civil Defense Corp from Owerri Municipal council secretariat opposite the Post Office had cordoned off the area preventing the crowd of sympathizers gathered from obstructing traffic flow.

R.I.P mama patience.
Pls dame ₪☺ kill us with english during d burial o.