The catholic community of Benue state is thrown into mourning after 12 executive members of the Idoma Saints Peter and Paul Association and the driver of the mini-bus conveying them to a meeting with the Bishop of the Oturkpo Diocese are killed in an accident on Palm Sunday
By Ubong George /Makurdi & Tony Orilade /Abuja
If Michael Alhassan, a technician with Benue State House of Assembly, Makurdi, knew death was lurking that Palm Sunday morning, he would have heeded the advice of his wife to drop her in church before going to meet other executive members of the Saints Peter and Paul Association of the Catholic Church, Idoma, who were billed to meet with the Bishop of Oturkpo Diocese, Bishop Michael Apochi. Mary, his wife and mother of his three children, even suggested that if Alhassan missed the bus as a result of the delay, he could go by public transport. But Alhassan insisted on traveling with other leaders of the association.
It proved to be his final journey, as the church-owned mini-bus in which they were traveling–with registration number AJ528 MKD–had a head-on collision with a tanker conveying black oil from Port Harcourt at the Federal Road Safety Commission junction in Makurdi. An eyewitness said the driver of the mini-bus was trying to overtake another car when it rammed into the tanker with registration number AA 498 AKW. The driver and all the 12 passengers of the mini-bus died instantly while the driver of the tanker sped off before the arrival of the road safety officials.
Helen Ogah, 46, a trader and housewife, returned from a village yam market in the wee hours of Palm Sunday. She went to bed to catch a little sleep before attending the Sunday Mass at Saint Augustine’s Catholic Church, Demekpe where she is the leader of Idoma Catholic Women Association of Saints Peter and Paul. As she set out of the house with her husband, a former staff of Central of Nigeria, she received a call from another member who reminded her of their proposed trip to Oturkpo. Helen, the provost of the body, wasted no time in dashing back to the house to change into her official uniform for the trip.
Recalling the incident, Mr. Ogah said he initially urged Helen to attend the church service in Makurdi before going to Oturkpo, but he later changed his mind because of the value attached to the Oturkpo meeting. A few hours after she left, news came that the bus in which she and 12 others were travelling had crashed. Helen had nine children–two boys and seven girls, one of who has just completed her university education and another still at Benue State University, Makurdi. Mr. Ogah could not hold back tears as he told sympathisers at their residence in Dempkpe that he would have preferred to die with his wife.
Another victim, Mrs Rose Abbah, a housewife and mother of five – three girls and two boys – was up as early as 4:45am that Palm Sunday to prepare for what was to become her last journey on earth. Her husband, a staff of the Benue Local Government Service Commission posted to Tarka Local Government, said his wife carried out her house chores before going to meet other members of the SS Peter and Paul for their scheduled meeting with the Bishop of Oturkpo Diocese.
When TheNEWS visited the residence of Mr. Abbah, he was yet to recover from the death of his wife as he stared into empty space, shaking his head in disbelief, while friends, colleagues, acquaintances, children and relations of the deceased wailed uncontrollably. For Mrs Regina Ogwuche, a nursing mother, her hope is in God. Regina whose husband, Godwin Ogwuche, President of the Idoma SS Peter and Paul, died in the accident, said her world seems to have crumbled just contemplating the magnitude of the responsibilities she would have to bear with ten children – two boys and eight girls. The late Ogwuche, 45, hailed from Adiga Ogwuchakpa in Okpokwu LGA. Their first son has just finished senior secondary school, while their last child, a baby girl, was born in January 2009.
Other victims of the accident include Michael Aliacha –Vice President of the Association; Mrs Lucy Abba, Vice-Chairlady; Mr Sunday Odeh, PRO; Mr. Moses Ochigbo, Provost 1; Mr Cletus Akpa, Provost II; Mr Augustine Adah, Provost III; Mrs Agnes Aladi Afene; Mr Michael Ejembi, Legal Adviser; Fidelis Onyillo and John Ogbole, the driver. Commenting on the incident, the Director of Communication, Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, Rev Fr Gabriel Wankar described it as tragic and a big blow to the Catholic community in the state. He said the deceased were on active service for the Lord when the accident occurred and prayed that God forgive their sins and received their souls in heaven.
In his condolence message to the Catholic community of Makurdi and Otukpo dioceses, the Benue State Governor, Mr. Gabriel Suswam prayed God to have mercy on the souls of the departed since he chose to call on them on the sacred Palm Sunday which marks the end of the Lenten season and the approach of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. He urged all Christians to pray to God to grant the families of the deceased the strength to bear the loss of their loved ones.
A statement signed by Mr. Cletus Akwaya, Special Adviser, Media and Public Affairs to the Governor, appealed to motorists and other road users in the state to exercise caution and obey traffic rules. Meanwhile, Elijah Adakole, Special Assistant to the Senate President, Benue Liaison, has debunked the news making the round that the victims were on their way to Oturkpo to see the Senate President.
The roads seemed to be thirsty for human blood on Sunday 12 April 2009. While former Jigawa governor, Saminu Turaki escaped death by the whiskers when his bullet-proof Hummer Jeep somersaulted as a result of a burst tyre on the Kebbi-Sokoto road, 13 members of a family returning from a wedding in Minna, Niger State, lost their lives in a road accident at Dungun-Ma’azu village in Sabuwa Local Government Area of Katsina State. Ten other members of the family were injured when a tyre of the Nissan Urvan conveying them burst, making the driver to lose control and crash into a ditch.
Turaki was on his way from a wedding in Kebbi when the accident occurred. At the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, where he was flown to, courtesy of President Umar Yar’Adua who dispatched a police helicopter, the Senator, who suffered head injuries, was received by a medical team led by Dr. David Ukoha, the personal physician to the President of the Senate, David Mark.
At the time of filing this report, he was in the Intensive Care Unit located in the Mariam Abacha Block of the National Hospital, Abuja. It was however gathered that arrangements were in the pipeline to transfer the advocate of tenure elongation for President Yar’Adua to a hospital abroad for further medical attention. A management staff of the National Hospital who spoke to this magazine on condition of anonymity said: “The former governor’s condition can be perfectly handled here in Abuja. All they should do is to vote money to acquire state-of-the-art equipment. That is the only thing that is lacking in Nigeria. Many of these hospitals abroad are manned by Nigerians who left the shores of this country for greener pastures. After all, did the late Governor Mamman Ali of Yobe State die in Nigeria?” Turaki was said to undergone surgery immediately he arrived the hospital and since then, his condition has been stable, a hospital source said.
The Senator’s relatives would, however, not have anything to do with such message. They insist that as soon as his condition stabilises, he should be flown abroad for comprehensive medical care. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is currently prosecuting Turaki at an Abuja High Court on a 32-count charge of money laundering and theft of N33billion and $20million state funds, which he allegedly used to pay for an oil bloc given to him by the Federal Government.
The 13 who died in the Katsina crash were mostly women and children. Only the driver and his conductor survived. According to Malam Abdurrasheed Kafinta, who arrived at the scene of the accident shortly after it occurred, the vehicle was conveying over 20 members of the family who were returning from the wedding of a relation in Minna. “We were coming in two different buses; one conveying us men and the other conveying women and children. They left us at Birnin Gwari after a lunch break, only for us to find their vehicle involved in an accident. I was the one who recognised them and quickly identified the dead bodies of my wife and daughter, and my injured mother. I fainted there and was taken to the hospital along with them,” Kafinta said. He said 10 survivors were hospitalised at the Funtua General Hospital.
Reports said the wife, daughter and a sister of Kafinta were buried at Tudun Malamai graveyard in Funtua, while the remaining dead persons were buried at Dandume. In a telephone chat, Muhammadu Bashiru, one of the family members, said 10 family members including six women and four children were buried at Danmaiyaki graveyard in Dandume. Also that Sunday, many people died in an accident involving two passenger buses and a motorcycle at Kanbi, along Bode Sa’adu-Jebba road in Kwara State. An eyewitness, who reported the incident to newsmen in Ilorin last Monday, said the accident occurred when a motorcycle rider crossed the road, and in an attempt to avoid him, the two buses had a head-on collision. The remains of the dead were taken to different hospitals in Jebba.
Speaking with this magazine, Max Ogar, an Abuja-based legal practitioner, blamed the accidents on bad roads in the country. “In many parts of this country, normal interaction has been frustrated by bad roads. Vehicle owners are in distress as their vehicles are not used optimally. Moreover, the very many potholes and detours mean that vehicles keep breaking down so that on many of the roads, emergency mechanics have sprung up to assist stranded commuters, sometimes with disastrous consequences. The rampant incidence of armed robbery on the highway is also as a result of bad roads,” he said.
He said that the Benin-Ore road, for instance, is in such a terrible state that vehicles using that road invariably retire to the mechanic workshop at the end of every journey. Transporters are hurting and are bewildered that despite their payment of all road taxes to the Federal Government and various rates to the state and local governments, little is being done to repair the roads on which their livelihood depends. Regrettably, Ogar said, this is happening in a country that has several establishments, including the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency and the Federal Ministry of Works, responsible for the construction and maintenance of roads.
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