12 killed in Bauchi road accident

No fewer than 12 persons lost their lives, on Thursday, in an accident on the Bauchi-Kano Road at Kafin Lima village in Bauchi State

A Toyota Hilux conveying the victims, who were personnel of a private security outfit known as “Danga Vigilante Group” had had a head-on coalition with a fuel tanker at about 5.00 p.m.

A witness, who,  incidentally, is the commandant of the Bauchi State-based security outfit, Alhaji Yusuf Hassan, said he was in a car tailing the Hilux vehicle and watched as the accident, which killed all the occupants of the vehicle, occurred.

“Nobody thought that this kind of incident would happen. We were returning from Ningi to Bauchi. I was in my car but the bus conveying my personnel had an accident  a few kilometers after taking off.

“The  tanker had lost control and rammed into the bus, killing my men, all 11 of them, and the driver of the truck on the spot.

“I had never seen deaths of this nature in my life, even during my military days.

“They received janaza prayers at Gwallaga mosque on Friday and were buried afterwards at the Bauchi  central cemetery along Gombe Road,” he said

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Bauchi  State,  Rilwanu Sulaiman Birnin Kebbi, confirmed the accident and the casualty figure.

He gave the registration number of the petrol tanker as GML-534-XA.

Birnin Kebbi said that the identity of the tanker driver had yet to be known but a survivor of the accident was responding to treatment at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), Bauchi.