12 DIE IN KOGI ROAD ACCIDENT

Twelve people died instantly in an accident which occurred on Okene-Lokoja road in Kogi state in the early hours of Monday. The accident, which involved a luxury bus with registration number Lagos KRD 799 LC and a truck with registration number Katsina 711 KTN, occurred at a spot at Irepeni village at about 5am. A witness told NAN that the accident occurred when the luxury bus collided with the truck. The witness said the bus was trying to avoid a barricade erected on the road by armed robbers and in the process collided with the truck loaded with cattles. Thirty cows were also said to have been killed in the accident. Confirming the accident, Charles Abochi, sector commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in the state, said 73 persons were involved in the accident out of which 12, comprising eight men and four women died on the spot. He said that 15 persons, including a female child, 12 men and three women sustained varying degrees of injuries. Abochi said that the injured were taken to the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja for treatment, while the corpses were taken to the morgues of the Kogi State Specialist Hospital, Lokoja and Alheri Hospital at Kabba junction. He said that the FRSC had launched a full scale investigation to ascertain immediate and remote causes of the accident.