Two accidents along Ngurore–Mayo-Belwa highway have claimed the lives of 13 people and caused severe injuries to 21 others.
It was gathered yesterday that the first accident, which happened on Monday night, claimed six lives while three others were badly injured.
The information officer of Mayo-Belwa Local Government Area, Kabiru Kelly, said the accident involving a Sharon bus occurred when the driver at- tempted to avoid a pothole but lost control and rammed onto a pole.
He said the dead had been taken to the Yola Specialist Hospital while the injured victims were receiving treatment at the Mayo-Belwa Cottage Hospital.
Kelly disclosed that the second accident was a head-on collision involving a bus and a Toyota Starlet car. According to him, the driver of the bus tried to overtake a heavy duty vehicle but rammed into the oncoming Starlet car. “The second accident al- most wiped out a whole family: a father, his wife and their four children who were on their way from Jalingo to Zamfara,” he said.
The information officer added that the bodies and injured persons were deposited at the Mayo Belwa General Hospital.
However, neither the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) nor the police could con- firm the accidents.
Both the state Sector Commander of the FRSC, Hussaini Muhammad, and the state police public relations officer, Othman Abubakar, said they were yet to get any briefing on the accidents.