Tragic excursion: Last moments of dead Misau students

A group of excited pupils and teachers of a secondary school in Misau, Bauchi State on Tuesday last week went on an ill-fated excursion that ended in the death of 23 of them. ISHOLA MICHAEL captures the mood in both their school and their town.

For the people of Misau town in Bauchi State, Tuesday, February 13, 2018 started normally like every other day with residents going about their businesses, but unknown to them, tragedy lurked around preparing to deal a deadly blow via an ill-fated journey embarked upon by about 22 students and their teachers.

They were from Government Day Secondary School, Sabongari, Misau. The students and teachers had gathered for the usual morning assembly with the Principal announcing that a group of the students, who were members of the Hausa Language Club of the school, were preparing for an excursion to Arewa 24 television station, Kano to learn more about Hausa language and how it is used in television programming.

Before embarking on the journey, like explorers on a pathfinding trip, all the students and teachers decided to pose for a photograph. It would later turn out that the photograph would be the enduring memory that their friends, classmates and colleagues would have of them forever.

The students were from different classes of the school cutting across the junior and secondary classes.

 

Agony of parents

While recollecting the last moments of the students, a parent of one of the victims, Mallam Haruna Dankasa, could only describe the death of the students as “tragic and most unfortunate” and “an act of Allah who gives and takes lives at will.”

Haruna said that it was as if his late son, Mohammed Haruna Ahmed, had a premonition of the tragedy. Mohammed had asked his father to pray for him and his colleagues, when he wanted to leave home for the journey, saying that was the last time he saw his son alive.

Haruna Dankasa, who was not feeling well, was at home when his wife, Mohammed’s mother, called and informed him of the accident. He immediately put a call through to the Principal who was then on his way to the scene and had no clear picture of the accident.

“I later called a friend who, luckily, was at the scene of the accident. He confirmed to me that 18 people died on the spot. That was when I knew that my son had died. When the corpses were brought to Misau General Hospital, I was able to identify my son. I broke down crying.

“He had sustained a fracture in his thigh and on the neck. As a Muslim, I know that death is inevitable and there is nothing we can do. What kept coming to my mind was that he kept coming back to me for more prayers before he left. I have 11 children, but Mohammed was an exceptional child. He was the best among them and he loved his other siblings,” he said.

Another parent, Aliyu Salihu, whose daughter, Na’ima Aliyu Salihu, also died, said before his daughter left for the journey, she was given food to take along.

“I later gave her N500 and she thanked me and left. I was later called and informed that she had died in the accident.

“My daughter was very dear to me. I love her so much because she was well-behaved. She had just been engaged to one Isah two weeks ago and was expected to get married after she might have finished school. We thank Allah for whatever he did to us. But it was a great loss,” Aliyu said.

Reacting, the school Principal, Rabi’u Ahmed Dan Adalan Misau, told journalists that he was completely devastated after being informed about the accident.

“I immediately hired a vehicle and headed to Gaya where the accident occurred. Before I got there, the corpses had been taken to Gaya General Hospital and from there, we took them back to Misau for burial.

“All the deceased were later taken to the palace of the Emir of Misau, Alhaji Ahmed Suleiman, as tradition demands in such rare happenings, for funeral prayers by the Chief Imam of Misau Central Mosque, Mallam Usman Mohammed Baba, after which they were all buried according to Islamic rites at the Misau Central Cemetery in the evening of that Tuesday after all the parents had been contacted and duly informed. Each corpse was properly identified by the owner before the burial,” he said mournfully.

The Principal said that eyewitnesses informed him that the bus had a head-on collision with a truck while trying to avoid a pothole. Other accounts of people who visited the scene added that the crash occurred few kilometers away from Gaya a border town between Kano and Jigawa states.

The account revealed that 22 of the students died on the spot of the accident, while another one later died at the hospital in Gaya.

According to the Principal, two persons survived the accident – a teacher and a student. Thus, a breakdown of the number of victims was given as 11 males and nine females, while two teachers, a male and a female, also died.

The teachers, who died, were Mallam Mohammed Mohammed and Aishatu Mohammed Jarwal, just as the principal commended the Emir of Misau, for the fatherly role he played, as well as the chairman of Gaya Local Government and a former lawmaker, Bakoji Aliyu Bobo, as well as other people who assisted the school.

An official of the General Hospital, who sought for anonymity, said the bodies of the deceased were deposited in the hospital around 11 am, while two other victims, who sustained injuries, were taken to the hospital and resuscitated. The corpses were released shortly after the incident for onward transfer to the hometown of the deceased.

Another eyewitness account revealed that the truck the excursion bus had a head-on collision with was coming from Kano on its way to Jama’are in Bauchi State.

He further narrated that the truck suddenly lost control while trying to avoid the bus conveying the students and rammed into it.

“It was so horrific. When the truck crushed the bus carrying the students we could not just go closer. It was a gory sight. When the Police arrived at the scene, it was discovered that 22 of the students had already died on the spot while only three were found alive.

“The police evacuated the corpses and rushed those that were still alive to the hospital,” he said.

Some of the students, who spoke to our reporter in the school, expressed shock, describing the accident as the most devastating thing to have happened to the school. Sadiq Bala Mohammed, an SS3 student who said that he lost four female members of his class, said that he could neither sleep nor eat since the incident because according to him, “it is just like a dream to me. The school has lost some of its best brains.”

He further said that members of his class, who died included Na’ima Aliyu Salihu, Hauwa Mohammed Omo, Fatima Ibrahim and Hajara Garba. Another SS3 student, Mohammed Abubakar said that three members of his class also died in the accident and they included Aliyu Mohammed, Abubakar A. Adamu, and Al-Amin A. Liman.

An elderly man from Misau, Mallam Aliyu Umar Misau who spoke to our reporter on telephone, said that what happened was a national tragedy because losing 23 young lives at a go was a shocking incident that cannot be forgotten in a hurry.

“This will forever remain in our memory as long as we live. Misau has really lost invaluable souls who are in their prime with dreams of becoming useful totheir society. However, this was what Allah wishes, so there is nothing we can do. We are only praying to him to grant the deceased his mercies and console the families and give them and us the fortitude to bear this tragic loss,” he said.

Bauchi State Governor, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, had to cut short his official engagements in Abuja in order to be in Misau to be part of the condolence. On arrival at Misau, the governor visited the Palace of the Emir where all the bereaved parents were gathered alongside other sympathisers and took time out to condole each of the parents describing the accident as a national tragedy.

Misau town has, however, remained in a mourning mood, as people from across the country are trooping there to register their condolences and console families who lost their loved ones. Our correspondent who visited the community, said the residents in groups discussing the tragedy, trying to comprehend how the accident actually happened with some of them blaming the poor condition of Nigerian roads, appealing to the government to fix them so as to stop continued loss of lives.