By AyoAjoge (Birnin-Kebbi)
and Tunke-Aye Bisina
(Asaba)

All of them occurred on highways.

An armed robbery attack on Tuesday and an auto crash on Wednesday claimed the lives of 11 passengers on the Asaba-Benin road that traverses Edo and Delta. No fewer than five persons were injured.

On Monday, an early hour multiple accident on Yauri-Kontagora road in Kebbi State, caused by an armed robbery operation, left 35 persons dead with 25 others seriously injured and under intensive care at the General Hospital, Yauri.

The accident on the Asaba-Benin road involved a Toyota Hiace commuter bus and a truck, claimed five lives and left another five persons in critical condition.

Another set of robbers had on Tuesday attacked travellers around Edo-Ogwashi, a few kilometers from the scene of the accident, killed six persons and left several others with bullet wounds. They stole from their victims.

But spokesperson of the state police command, Okuwobi Olabisi, put the death toll in that incident at three.

Eyewitnesses claimed that the criminals operated for several hours without resistance from policemen, resulting in traffic tail back for over two hours.

Olabisi said they used sophisticated arms but stressed that the police have spread their dragnet to arrest them.

She announced the killing of three robbery suspects by the police after a gun duel on Jakpa road, Effurun on Monday.

The Toyota bus was marked Delta XB 695-AGB. It was on its way from Agbor to Onitsha when it ran into a truck (marked Lagos XB 511-AGL) at the Okpanem end of the Asaba-Benin highway, five kilometers from Asaba.

Five of the passengers, including the driver, died immediately; five others received varying degrees of injury and were rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba where they are lying in critical condition.

The corpses have been deposited at the St. Joseph’s Clinic Mortuary, Asaba.

Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) officials on Tuesday tried to tow the vehicles and searched the belongings of the passengers to identify them.

One of them said the identity card of a 400 level student of Delta State University (DELSU) was recovered from the scene.

He added that while they were rescuing the survivors, another towing van (marked Anambra XO 359 NSH) crashed into the scene and wounded two persons who were taken to hospital.

FRSC Delta State Sector Commander, Sunday Maku, confirmed that five persons died on the spot and that another five received injury.

He said the accident was caused by over speeding by the driver of the Toyota bus “because he ran into another vehicle”.

Also, Kebbi State Governor, Muhammadu Adamu Aliero, visited the scene of the accident on the Yauri-Kontagora road where he was told by the driver of one of the vehicles, Abubakar Ibrahim, that they were travelling to Akure, Ondo State from Illela, the border town in Sokoto State lying between Nigeria and Niger Republic.

The vehicle, a Mercedes Benz truck marked XF 924 KMC, carried over 40 passengers along with their goods.

He said they met a road block erected by armed robbers about 3 a.m. and in an attempt to avoid it, the truck veered into a ditch, killing 16 passengers instantly.

After the accident, according to Ibrahim, another truck, a DAF model (marked XK 383 AAA), whose driver did not notice the accident, rammed into the Mercedes Benz and somersaulted. Seven persons died instantly.

The conductor of the DAF truck, Mustapha Salisu, told Aliero that the armed robbers, after noticing the havoc they wreaked, fled the scene only to emerge some kilometers away with another road block from where they again robbed, maimed and killed.

Aliero promised that the government will foot the hospital bills of those injured.