12 Corpses Of Accident Victims On Their Way To A Burial Recovered From River

Rescue officials on Saturday recovered 12
corpses of victims of Friday’s accident which
occurred at the Ogun axis of the Sagamu-Benin-
Ore Expressway . Over-speeding has been
identified as the most likely cause of the accident.
The bodies were recovered after over 9 hours of
collaborative operations by different relevant
agencies on Saturday. Most of the victims of the
bus accident were travelling to attend a burial
ceremony.
The victims are believed to have left Lagos for
Edo State for a burial at Uronigbe in Oriohwon
Local Government Area of Edo. Their bus
plunged into a river along J4 expressway in Ijebu-
East Local Government Area of Ogun State.
The bus, believed to be carrying over 30
passengers, veered off a dual carriage bridge into
a river. Three people were rescued alive on
Friday. The bus conveying the passengers was
also recovered from the river, early on Saturday.
The recovery mission was carried out by officials
of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC ;
National Emergency Agency, NEMA; Ogun State
Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps,
TRACE; Nigeria Police Force; and the Red Cross
Society.
The 12 corpses recovered include those of 11
women and the male driver. The bus was a
Federal Urban Mass Scheme coastal bus with
Abuja registration number BWR 428 XA.
While speaking after the recovery, the FRSC,
IJebu-Ode Unit Commander, Issa Seidu,
confirmed that 12 bodies were so far recovered
while 3 people were rescued on Friday night and
were rushed to a private hospital in Ore.
He said one of the survivors told the commission
that it was 21 passengers that were in the bus,
including the driver.
“Although we don’t know the actually number of
people in the bus but one of the survival said
they were 21 in number,” he said.
Mr. Seidu attributed the accident to over
speeding.
“It is a clear case of over speeding on the part of
the driver of the bus,” the Road Safety official
said. “If you look at the distance from which the
bus ran into the river which is about a kilometer
away, it shows that the driver was on a terrible
speed.”
Ibrahim Farinloye, the information officer of
NEMA South-West Zone 2, in his reaction assured
that the agency would commence search and
rescue operation of the remaining bodies in the
river.
He said the agency could not ascertain the
number of the people inside the bus as there
was no passenger manifest found in it.
“This is the first phase of the of the operation,
the second phase which is going to start soon
will be search and rescue operation for the rest
bodies.
“With what we have seen, it clear that it is not an
18-seater bus, but we will get to the park where
the bus loaded to get the manifest to ascertain
the actual figures of people involved,” he said.
The Ijebu Zonal Commander of TRACE, Tommy
Hamzat, also said over-speeding was the cause of
the accident.
He urged road users to be very patient on the
highways, especially during the ember months.
“I want to urge road users to be patient during
this festive period because the road is patient
and they also needed to be patient,” he said.