….Nine People Burnt To Death
By Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
The sad effect of the ongoing fuel scarcity in the country, leading to motorists buying and keeping fuel in jerrycan, while on transit, might be responsible for a ghastly auto crash in Ilorin, Kwara State, where nine people were burnt to death last Sunday.
CompassNG findings revealed that the manner which one of the vehilcles involved in the accident, a commuter bus, carrying nine passengers, including the driver, instantly caught fire was suggestive of having a fuel cargo in it.
The auto crash had occurred in the early hours of Sunday, 20th February, 2022, in front of Ilorin International Airport, along Ilorin-Eyenkorin/Ogbomosho road.
It was reported that a pregnant woman was suspected to be one of those who were burnt to death in the bus and that she was suspected to be pregnant by the look of her charred body at the time bodies of the victims were being evacuated.
Kwara State FRSC Sector Commander, Corps Commander Jonathan Owoade, whose officers and men carried out the rescue operation, confirmed that the crash occurred at about 8 a.m on Sunday and that it involved a Toyota Hiace bus, with registration number AFN 06 YL, and a Toyota corolla saloon car, marked LRN 787 FE, with 17 people involved.
Eye witnesses account however said the Toyota saloon car was driving out of the airport, while the Lagos-bound Hiace bus was on top speed along the express way.
The bus, according to them, collided with the car coming out of the airport, making it to lose control and landed sideway in the middle of the road; the bus instantly went up in flames, leading to the death of the occupants.
A total of nine people, comprised of eight women and one man got burnt beyond recognition, while five men sustained various degrees of injuries, and had since been on admission at at the Ilorin General Hospital, receiving treatments.
Bodies of the burnt passengers of the bus had since been deposited at the morgue of the same General Hospital.
However, the three men inside the saloon car escaped uninjured.
Commander Owoade said that the crash ordinarily was avoidable,warning motorists, private or commercial, against recklessness while driving, and avoid keeping PMS (petrol) in jerry cans inside their vehicles while on a journey.
He appreciated the Kwara State ambulance services for the quick release of ambulances as back up to the rescue operations.
The FRSC boss commiserated with families of the victims, and assured the public that the Corps would ever strive hard to ensuring that such unfortunate incidences are curtailed on the roads, calling on anybody whose relatives travelled last Sunday and had not returned home to check out at the hospitals.
