Enugu — Recently, no fewer than 15 persons lost their lives in a fatal motor accident in Oji River town, Enugu State. It was gathered that on the fateful day (November 22), the residents of the sleepy town woke up without any inkling of the tragedy that was going to befall the town.
As early as 7.30.am, the main market in the town was already agog with activities. Travelers were also seen trooping in and out of the motor park. But, at about 10.am, tragedy struck in the town, when a trailer lost control and crushed about 15 persons to death. The accident occurred near Roi Filling Station, located along the Oji River axis of old Enugu-Onitsha Road. According to an eyewitness, a trailer on high speed suddenly lost control and crashed into car and a building filled with people. Our source said some persons in the building were crushed instantly while others were trapped inside.
"I was a distance away when I saw the trailer on high speed veering off the road and heading towards the building. Before we knew it, the trailer crashed into the building. As I ran close to the building, I saw a gory sight; blood was splattered everywhere. I saw people, whose hands and legs were decapitated shouting in pain. There were those who looked lifeless lying in a pool of blood. What I saw was shocking," the eye-witness said.
The accident caused pandemonium in the area as, policemen and people mobilised a swift rescue operation to save the victims. Police spokesman in Enugu State, DSP Ebere Amaraizu, confirmed our report. Amaraizu said police recovered1five bodies at the scene of the accident. He disclosed that the driver and conductor of the trailer are now in police custody.
Prior to the latest incident, a trailer crushed no fewer than 26 persons to death in the same town recently. The earlier accident occurred on February 14 this year near Wonderful junction along Oji River axis of the same newly reconstructed Enugu-Onitsha Old Road. According to an eyewitness, the heavy duty trailer carrying chippings was on high speed when it suddenly veered off the road. Our source said within a twinkle of an eye, the trailer overran some okada riders, before it crashed into a building at the Oji River market, crushing traders and visitors to the market. Daily Independent gathered that the casualties of the accident included traders, women and children. A swift rescue operation coordinated by men of the Federal Road Safety Corps was said to have commenced on the scene of the accident immediately. Travellers who witnessed the rescue operations told Daily Independent that the number of casualties were high.
"There was blood everywhere. Many of the victims were no longer breathing when they were being taken away. Many of them were unconscious. It was a gory sight. I cried as I saw bones of fellow human beings in pieces," one of them said.
It was gathered that most of the victims were rushed to hospitals in neighbouring Anambra State.
There were, however, contradictory figures on the casualties from the Sector Commander, FRSC, Enugu State, Fumbiyi Olawoyin, and the spokesman of the Enugu State Police Command, Ebere Amaraizu. Olawoyin, who cited information from FRSC men on the scene, said eight persons lost their lives while five persons were injured. But, Amaraizu said the report he received from the Oji River Division of Nigerian Police showed that 26 persons died in the accident.
The high casualty figures recorded at Oji River has again drawn attention to the abandoned Enugu-Onitsha expressway. It would be recalled that in 2008, the Federal Government awarded contracts to CCC Limited for the rehabilitation of the road, and the project has been captured in successive budgetary allocations, but no meaningful work has been done on the road. Following the abandonment of dual carriage Enugu-Onitsha expressway, which makes it difficult for heavy duty vehicles to use the road, they now resort to the single lane old road that was reconstructed by the Enugu State government.
A source at the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) told Daily Independent that the state of the Enugu-Onitsha expressway has increased the incidence of road accidents along the old road, adding that several lives have been lost as a result of the bad road. A commercial bus driver, Ude Okoye, who plies between Enugu and Onitsha, expressed worry over the abandonment of the Enugu-Onitsha expressway, noting that it has made journeys that ought to have been short, long, tortuous and even dangerous. Okoye said:
"Travelling from Enugu to Onitsha, should not take up to one hour if the road is good. But you can see that it now takes two to three hours to make the journey because of the bad road. The contractors made things worse by closing one lane and we now either use only one lane, for both those going to Enugu and those going to Onitsha or go to the old road, which has one lane. Under the prevailing circumstance, the risk of accidents is higher" he said. Okoye, therefore, called on the Federal Government and its relevant agencies, to do everything possible to ensure that rehabilitation work was concluded quickly on the road, to ease the difficulties of the travellers and save them from danger.
A concerned indigene of the Southeast, Emeka Eze, decried the abandonment of the road, regretting that the PDP led Federal Government has not done enough to reciprocate the support it received from the Southeast. Eze said: "the more the people of South-East vote PDP, the worse their roads become", adding that the self-serving attitude of the South-East governors to governance havs not really helped matters in the zone. He accused federal lawmakers from the South-East of going to National Assembly for personal aggrandizement rather than pursue the cause of their people who have suffered neglect more than any other geo-political zone of the country.
Hope earlier came for the road in September 2012 when the Federal Government announced that the ongoing rehabilitation work along the Enugu-Onitsha expressway would be partly funded by the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment (SURE) programme. The then Minister of State for Works, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, had announced this after an inspection tour of the two stretches of the dual carriage road from Enugu to Onitsha and Onitsha back to Enugu. Yuguda, who was guided on the inspection tour by the contractors handling the project, assured that with the improved funding of the project, the Federal Government would deliver, adding that President Goodluck Jonathan was committed to completing Enugu-Onitsha road and other federal highways in the South-East geo-political zone.The Minister noted that his inspection visit was a follow-up of the visit by President Goodluck Jonathan to Anambra State to commission some big projects for the development of the country.
"We are very happy to inform Nigerians that this road is very critical to our nation. It is going to be funded partly by the SURE programme. I have come. I have done the inspection. We are having few challenges, but of course with the improved funding on this road, definitely, we are going to deliver" he said.
Yuguda had during the visit in September 2012 announced December 2013 new deadline for completion of the Enugu portion of the road, but as at date, it has not undergone 40 percent completion. The contract for the rehabilitation work on Enugu-Onitsh road was awarded in 2008 by the Federal Government with a completion date of 30 months, which elapsed in November 2011.
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