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Obinna Odogwu, Abakaliki
Valentine’s Day on February 14 last week would not be forgotten in a hurry by many residents of Abakaliki, the capital of Ebonyi State.
It was the day 20 persons narrowly escaped death in a motor accident involving the convoy of the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu.
Daily Sun gathered that the accident, which occurred along the Abakaliki/Afikpo Road, around the Nkwoagu Military Cantonment, involved a commercial bus loaded with 16 passengers. The other four, according to sources, were in a vehicle in the minister’s convoy.
The commercial bus was on its way to Uburu in Ohaozara Local Government Area of the state. The minister, who incidentally hails from the same Uburu community, was said to be heading to Abakaliki before the sports utility vehicle conveying him had a head-on collision with the commercial bus.
The victims were taken to the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki (FETHA), where they were visited by officials of the Ebonyi State government, including the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Daniel Umezurike and Chief of Staff to the governor, Chief Offor Okorie.
The commissioner told Daily Sun that the state governor, Chief David Umahi, had also visited the victims in the hospital and offered them some support.
When Daily Sun visited the hospital on the first day, many of the victims were still in pain. Some of them were being attended to outside the building.
The following day, the Dr. Umezurike, the health commissioner, went there to personally attend to the patients.
Narrating the account of what transpired, the driver of the ill-fated bus, Mr. Idika Akpoeze, told Daily Sun that the accident occurred when one of the vehicles in the convoy tried to overtake the others.
Akpoeze said: “After loading from our motor park, I was driving down to Ohaozara Local Government Area. Before the gate of the army barracks, I saw the convoy. As the convoy was coming, the one conveying the minister tried to overtake other vehicles in the convoy.
“I saw it from afar and immediately started slowing down. I also drove off the road into the pedestrian section. I drove entirely off the tarred road to make way for them. I wonder how the driver of that vehicle was able to hit my bus.”
Another victim, Mr. Lawrence Okoro, said some of the victims lost consciousness when the accident took place.
“Before we knew it, one of the SUVs in the convoy ran off its lane and rammed into our own with speed and it was face to face. The vehicle was on high speed. Nobody died but some persons were in critical condition. About two victims broke their hands and legs.
“I was the only person conscious at the time and I angrily went to the motor and started hitting my hand on it. One of the security men came and tried to stop me,” he said.
Another victim, Mr. Ndubuisi Ukpa, corroborated Okoro but said that out of the 16 victims in his own bus, five were secondary school students returning home ahead of the election billed for February 16.
He corroborated the narration that two of the victims had fractured bones while some others were still unconscious at the time of the visitation.
“We were about 16 in the bus, out of which five were secondary school students returning home. I attended a burial ceremony in Abakaliki and was returning home before this incident happened,” he said.
When contacted on the telephone, the personal assistant to the minster, Obasi Ogbonnaya, confirmed that his principal, Onu, was involved in an accident in Abakaliki but said that he did not have details yet as he was in Abuja.
Umezurike described the road mishap as tragic. He said that, given the nature of the incident, some of the victims sustained various degrees of injuries, ranging from multiple fractures to soft tissue injuries.
Umezurike said: “It was a very high-impact accident and we thank God that nobody lost his or her life. Seeing them today, they are doing very well because the medical team has been attending to them adequately.
“And when I finished seeing them yesterday, I also reached out to the Governor, Chief David Umahi, and he also came to see the patients. But by the time he came, the Honourable Minister had travelled back to Abuja. He said that he wanted to be taken care of in Abuja.
“Today again, he sent me and the Chief of Staff, Chief Offor Okorie, to come and see the patients and he also made a donation of N100,000 to each of the patients to take care of their feeding and other logistics. He has also undertaken to pay all the medical bills of the patients affected.
“It was a very high-impact accident, a head-on collision, with one of them being on top speed. From the onset, they were three people that had very high degree of injuries, multiple fractures, but they are doing quite well now,” he said.
The commissioner also stated that he visited the minister at the VIP section of the federal hospital to ascertain his condition, which he said, was stable. He also said that Governor Umahi reached out to the minister as well.
Hear him: “The governor even called the minister on phone and sent him a message immediately the thing happened but he replied that he was already on his way to Abuja. And after seeing these patients, I also went with the chief medical director to the VIP ward where he was being attended to and saw him. I had information that he was doing very well.”
