No fewer than 19 persons lost their lives in a road accident on the Okene-Lokoja highway, involving two vehicles and a truck.
Federal Road Safety Corps spokesperson, Assistant Corps Marshal Jonas Agwu, disclosed this in an official statement on X.com on Sunday.
He said the accident, which occurred on Sunday was caused by the collision between a Dangote Truck with registration number NSH680YJ and a Toyota Hiace Bus with registration number KMC455ZE.
According to him, the truck wrongly overtook another vehicle, collided head-on with the bus and exploded in a fiery inferno that claimed the lives of 19 out of the 22 individuals involved.
Agwu said, “ The TYT bus loaded from Kano was on its lane on the highway when the Dangote Truck driver who drove from Portharcourt wrongfully overtook a vehicle & collided head-on with the bus. The impact of the collision resulted in a fire inferno that burnt the victims to death.
“According to the report, the crash which was caused by route violation ‘One Way’ and wrongful overtaking, involved 22 people all male.
“Unfortunately, 19 people out of the 22 victims were killed and 1 injured.
“The remaining 2 victims who got rescued by FRSC operatives without injuries survived the crash because they complied with traffic regulations on compulsory use of seatbelts.
“The corpses of the dead victims whose lives were claimed by the crash have been deposited at Okene General Hospital.”