16 persons burnt to death in Niger auto crash

From Yakubu Mustapha Minna

Barely three weeks after 13 persons reportedly lost their lives on the Bida- Minna road in Niger state another accident occurred yesterday with no fewer than 16 people killed on same road.
The accident occurred at Kakapangi after Katearegi town in the Katcha local government area of the state along Minna – Bida road.
An eyewitness said that the accident involved a Toyota Hiace bus conveying traders from Oyo state to Minna and a Tanker loaded with fuel enroute Bida town.
It was reliably gathered that the vehicles were involved in head on collision resulting in both vehicles bursting into flames.
An eyewitness further told our correspondent that the driver of the commercial vehicle conveying 15 passengers were trapped that led to their being burnt to death
Information about the occupants of the fuel tanker whether they escaped or not was not clear but sympathisers at the scene battled spiritedly to recover the remains of those that were burnt in the commercial vehicle.
The Public Relations Officer of the Federal Road Commission (FRSC) in the state, Malam Raji Ejigogo confirmed the accident saying that the organisation was yet to get details of the incident.
He said “We cannot say the number of casualty; our emergency accident team has gone to the area for on the spot investigation”
According to observers, the recurrent accident with heavy casualty on the road to the bad nature of the road which had made it dusty and also impaired the vision of motorists.
The Niger State government had awarded the contract for the rehabilitation of the road in 2016 but the project had been abandoned due to non payment of the contractors’ worth over almost two billion naira.