12 bodies recovered at scene of Sagamu-Benin accident

A combined team of FRSC, NEMA officials and the Police on Saturday recovered 12 corpses of passengers whose bus plunged into a river Friday on J4 Expressway in Ijebu-East Local Government Area of Ogun.

The bodies were recovered during a nine-hour rescue operation that involved workers from the Ogun Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps and the Red Cross Society.

Recovered were the bodies of 11 women and that of the driver from the Federal Urban Mass Scheme coaster bus with registration number BWR 428 XA.

The passengers were on their way from Ota, in Ogun state for a burial at Uronigbe in Oriohwon Local Government Area of Edo state.

Mr Issa Seidu, the Ijebu-Ode Unit Commander of the FRSC, who confirmed the recovery, said that three persons were rescued on Friday night and rushed to a private hospital in Ore town. Seidu said that one of the survivors had told FRSC officials that there were 21 passengers in the bus, including the driver.

The FRSC commander attributed the accident to over-speeding.

“It is a clear case of over-speeding on the part of the driver of the bus. If you look at the distance from which the bus ran into the river, which is about a kilometre away, it shows that the driver was on a terrible speed. It clearly shows that the driver was on a suicide mission. Although we don’t know the actual number of people in the bus, one of the survivors said they were 21 in number.

“In all ,we were able to recover 12 bodies and rescued three.”

Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, the Information Officer of NEMA, South-West Zone 2, said the agency would commence search and recovery for the remaining bodies.

Farinloye said the agency could not ascertain the number of persons inside the bus as there was no passenger manifest found in it.

“ For now, nobody can ascertain the number of people inside the bus because passengers’ manifest was not found inside the bus; but so far, we are able to recover 12 bodies. 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 is 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 figure of people involved.”

Mr Tommy Hamzat, the Ijebu Zonal Commander of the traffic compliance outfit, also blamed the accident on over-speeding.

Hamzat, however, urged road users to be very patient on the highways 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.“

Mr Isunmekhe Osamaye, the Ogbere Police Divisional Officer, said the rescue was perfect, without disturbance from hoodlums.

Osamaye, however, said that all the money and other property recovered from the bus would be given to the relatives of the deceased, whenever they showed up.

“We will park everything we recovered into the bus and tow it to our station and whenever the relatives of the deceased show up, we will give it to them.“

NAN reports that relatives of the accident victims who were at the scene of the rescue, could not withhold their tears.

One of them who identified herself as Doris Owokoma, said her elder sister was among the victims.

“ I don’t know how my mother will be able to face this. Will she survive, if she hears the news of the death of her daughter?.”