NINETEEN persons reportedly lost their lives in an auto crash at Okene bypass on the Okene-Lokoja highway in Kogi on Sunday, April 28.
The crash involved a Dangote Cement truck and a Toyota Hiace bus, the Public Education Officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Assistant Corps Marshal Jonas Agwu, told journalists.
According to Agwu, the Toyota bus travelling from Kano was on its lane when the Dangote truck driver travelling from Port Harcourt wrongfully overtook a vehicle and collided head-on with the bus.
He said it took operatives of the FRSC, battling through the accompanying inferno, three hours to rescue two surviving victims of the crash.
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“The impact of the collision resulted in an inferno that burnt the victims to death,”
Agwu said the crash, caused by route violation and wrongful overtaking, involved 22 male persons.
“Unfortunately, 19 persons out of the 22 victims were killed, while one was injured. The two victims who got rescued by FRSC operatives survived without injuries because they complied with traffic regulations on the compulsory use of seatbelts.
“Corpses retrieved from the crash were deposited at Okene General Hospital.”
The FRSC spokesperson added that the driver of the Dangote truck would be prosecuted by directives earlier issued by the Corps Marshal, Dauda Ali-Biu.
Ali Biu had called on the judiciary, the leadership of transport unions and other relevant stakeholders to join hands with the FRSC to restore sanity to Nigerian roads through speedy and effective prosecution.
The accident on Sunday came barely one week after 14 persons died, and 13 others sustained various degrees of injuries in an accident at Aloma community in Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State.