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No fewer than 15 persons have been feared killed in Akwanga Local Government Area of Nasarawa State following a fatal road accident in the area.
The accident occurred about 8am yesterday when a Carina Station Wagon conveying 10 passengers and a Hilux Pick Up van had a head-on collision, killing all occupants of the two vehicles and their drivers.
An eyewitness account revealed that the two vehicles collided, while trying to dodge a pothole about eight kilometres to the local government headquarters.
Another eyewitness to the accident, John Muhammed, said the station wagon was heading towards Akwanga Council headquarters, while the Hilux van was from coming from Lafia to Abuja when the incident happened.
At the time of filling this report, residents of the area were still making attempts to evacuate dead bodies trapped in the vehicles.
However, respite could not come immediately as officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and other security operatives were not immediately available to assist in rescuing those who were critically injured.
Some commercial drivers who arrived the scene of the incident had to discharge their passengers to assist in evacuation of the victims’ bodies.
One of the drivers, who conveys passenger from Abuja to Lafia, simply identified as Mustapha Abdullahi, appealed to motorists plying the road to be cautious of the bad road.
He also charged the Federal Government to speed up work on expansion of the Abuja-Keffi-Lafia road to reduce the rate of accidents on the only road linking the North with the South-South and South East.
Relatedly, the FRSC has confirmed that two persons died while 10 others sustained injured of varying degrees in a fatal motor accident at Tashan Maialewa village on the Bauchi–Dass road.
Deputy Corps Commander and Head of Operations, Bauchi Sector Command, Ibrahim Abubakar, said the accident was caused by excessive speeding by a Mercedes Benz marked: BAU172-GC and two commercial vehicles.
“About 12 persons, comprising 10 male adults, as well as one male and one female adult were involved in the accident. Our men rushed them to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi for medical attention,” he stated.