5 NANS LEADERS DIE IN AUTO CRASH

Five officials of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), including the Senate President, Donald Onukaogu, died yesterday in an auto crash while four other students sustained varying degrees of injuries with one of them in critical condition.

The dead student leaders include Assah Ejeita, Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Duru Jacobs (Assistant Secretary-General, NANS Zone B and another simply identified as Japheth. Onukaogu was of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri.

The students, who sustained varying degrees of injuries in the crash, were rushed to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Umuahia, where they are receiving medical attention.
Abia State governor, Theodore Orji, who rushed to FMC on learning about the accident, described it as a disheartening tragedy.

Daily Newswatch gathered that the accident which claimed the lives of the student leaders occurred in the early hours of yesterday at Ariam, Ikwuano Local Government Area, Abia State.

Daily Newswatch gathered that the NANS delegation led by late Onukogu was on peace mission to douse the tension raised by the alleged killing of two University of Uyo students in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State capital.

They were said to have left Abuja on Wednesday afternoon and had to pass the night at Federal University of Technology, Owerri, from where they took off yesterday before they met their tragic end.

Witnesses said the NANS officials’ bus driven by Onukaogu had a head-on collision with an oncoming trailer, avoiding a pothole. Officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) rose to the occasion and evacuated the victims to FMC.

When Daily Newswatch visited FMC, two of the students had been treated as stitches were seen on their faces and mouth respectively. Another, who had laceration of the tongue, was still undergoing treatment.

Assistant Director in charge of Accident and Emergency Unit, FMC, Umuiahia, Mr. Emmanuel Okereke, told Daily Newswatch that five accident victims were brought to the unit at about 8.30am.

“Among the five, one was brought in dead. Three had facial injuries and another had head injury. Among the three, one was taken to the theatre while two were taken to the Oral Maxillofacial Unit and the one with head injury which is the most serious of them is in the Intensive Care Unit receiving treatment.”  He said they were responding to treatment.

While at the FMC, Governor Orji said “When I received the news, I thought it was the students of the South who paid me a visit yesterday, until the Director of State Security Service told me that the victims were NANS officials on a trip to Uyo, Akwa Ibom.

“I have come to see things for myself and I have seen and it is very sympathetic. What happened this morning is very disheartening. I am touched like it is my sons and daughters that were involved in this accident. Secondly, it happened in my state. I am concerned,” Orji said.

Source:  Daily Newswatch