Tragedy went an extra mile early Tuesday as over 50 persons were feared killed in a gory robbery operation in Kogi State.
Most of the victims were said to be travelling from Lagos to Abuja when their bus was stopped by robbers who ordered them out and asked them to lie face-down on the road.
Unsuspecting oncoming vehicles rammed into them and ran over them, leaving behind mangled flesh, broken skulls and flattened corpses.
Only 14 bodies were recovered later – it was impossible to gather the other pieces of flesh together. It was that bad.
•Same day in Lagos, 10 persons were feared dead and several others injured in a road crash at Shogunle, along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.
•In Uromi, Edo State, robbers attacked a bank, killing two people and injuring many others.
•In Benin, an 11-year-old primary school pupil was found hanged, although the initial belief was that he committed suicide.
The Kogi robbery is believed to be a reprisal as the police had at about 3am Tuesday raided the hideout of a gang of notorious armed robbers in Okene, killing two suspects.
A couple of hours later, the robbers struck at Zariagi, Kabba Junction, near Lokoja.
The passengers and victims of the attack lost their lives when a luxury bus and a truck travelling at high speed ran over them.
According to sources, a Chisco luxury bus with registration number XL 300 ABC on its way to Abuja was waylaid by the gang of armed robbers who were wielding dangerous weapons.
All the passengers were ordered to alight from the bus and made to lie face-down while they were being robbed one after the other when another Chisco bus and the truck ran into them.
The Kogi State Sector Commandant, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Mr. Sunday Maku, confirmed the incident, adding that his command got wind of it around 5am when the villagers alerted them.
He said his men rushed to the scene only to discover dismembered bodies of the victims which had been further crushed by other vehicles plying the road.
Maku said the recovered corpses – 10 adult males, three adult females and a baby – had been deposited at the Federal Medical Centre and Lokoja Specialist Hospital, Lokoja, Kogi State. He said over 50 persons might have perished.
The driver of the robbed vehicle is reportedly the only survivor of the accident.
In Lagos, 10 persons lost their lives in an accident caused by a head-on collision between an inter-state bus and a commercial bus popularly known as “Danfo”.
According to a witness, the commercial bus flagrantly disregarded the traffic light and then collided with the inter-state bus which was in its right of way.
"Probably because of the speed at which they were driving, both of them found it difficult to apply the brakes," the witness, who gave her name as Bunmi, said.
In Uromi, the robbers raided a bank in an operation that lasted for over one hour, killing two persons and injuring several others.
The robbers, according to sources, arrived the bank in a bus and forced themselves in by shooting sporadically. They succeeded in carting away huge sums of money.
Speaking on the matter, Police spokesman, ASP Peter Ogboi, said though he was aware of the robbery incident, the headquarters was yet to be briefed by the divisional police officer (DPO) in charge of the area.
In another development, an Abuja-based automobile mechanic was reported to have committed suicide in Ubiaja, the administrative headquarters of Esan South-East Local Government Council of Edo State.
Vincent Egwuchi, 19, an indigene of Ifeku community in the council area, a source disclosed, came to Ubiaja with the intent of relocating his automobile shop there.
THISDAY also gathered that Egwuchi, who complained bitterly of low patronage in Abuja, disclosed his intention to one Titus, his host in Ugbeni quarters, Ubiaja and travelled to Uromi on Friday, July 22 on an exploratory mission.
He returned to Ubiaja, sources said, same day drenched by the rain, greeted those he met in the house, changed his clothes and left, never to be seen until Monday, July 25 when a curious farmer discovered his decomposing body dangling from a tree in the forest.
It still remains a mystery why Egwuchi, described as “undaunted and hard-working”, would take his own life even as he did not leave any note.
In yet another tragic incident, a primary six pupil has died in controversial circumstances in Benin City.
Master Oziegbe Osakue, 11, was found neck-tied to a window protector a few hours after he returned home from school Tuesday, last week.
The incident which occurred at 9, Ogieva Street, Off Benin-Auchi Road, Aduwawa, Benin City, it was learnt, forced the authorities of his school, Classic Academy Nursery and Primary School Aduwawa, to cancel their graduation ceremony scheduled to hold before vacation on Friday, last week.
The teenager, popularly known in his neighbourhood as OZ, was said to be a lone child of his mother and the eldest of his father who is now married to another woman and blessed with two girls and a boy.
According to his grandfather, Mr. Eboehise, on that fateful day, he was seated outside his house sipping the water Oziegbe fetched for him, when other children in the house with whom he was playing with screamed “OZ don die”.
He added that as most occupants of his fenced residence rushed to find out what happened, they met the little boy’s neck tied with his shirt to an iron bar in a window while his legs rested loosely on the floor.
His visibly traumatised grandmother disclosed that the lad who was a leader of entertainment groups that would have featured in his school graduation groove was practising with the children who suddenly raised the alarm.
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