One person suspected to be a prospective Corps member has reportedly died, and 11 others sustained injuries after a passenger bus rammed into a stationary truck on the Okposi – Amasiri road, a remote area of Ebonyi State, South East Nigeria.
Locals told ait.live in Abakaliki that the accident happened at Amenu village of Okposi community in Ohaozara Local Government Area, a major inter-state transportation route for Enugu and the southern parts of Ebonyi State.
Eyewitnesses said the 14-seater commercial bus which was conveying passengers at about 2:00pm local time on Wednesday, rammed into a tipper truck, resulting in the instant death of a yet to be identified female passenger suspected to be a prospective member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
It was gathered that the deceased female passenger and a others may have been heading to the NYSC Permanent Orientation camp in Afikpo town to report for the mandatory orientation programme for the 2024 Batch C, Stream 11, which opened nationwide on Wednesday, before the tragic accident.
One person at the accident scene revealed that emergency rescue operation came from some military personnel who evacuated the body of the only dead passenger, while the injured were helped by residents who rushed them to the nearby David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences (DUFUHS) in Uburu, for medical treatment.
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A passenger manifest reportedly found at the accident place indicated that 12 of the 14 occupants of the bus were prospective Corps members who boarded in Enugu on Wednesday and were heading to the NYSC Orientation camp in Afikpo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC and Police in Ebonyi State could not give details on the fatal accident 24 hours after emergency rescue operations by residents and passers-by.
However, the Ebonyi State Coordinator, National Youth Service Corp, NYSC, Foluke Oladeinde confirmed that the accident affected some prospective Corps members, though she could not give exact number of casualties and the injured.
“My state of mind now is not really okay, pls. It affected prospective Corp members pls”, Oladeinde lamented.
It is unclear whether the families of the affected passengers have been contacted by the relevant authorities.
(Editor: Ken Eseni)
