A veteran Journalist, Mr Dominic Ozoh, and three other persons have been killed in a motor accident on Kaduna-Zaria expressway, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
NAN reports that Ozoh was a former Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kaduna State Council.
Dominic was also the pioneer general coordinator, Arewa Online Publishers’ Association, AOPA.
Addressing newsmen in Zaria on Tuesday, the Unit Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Zaria Unit Command, Mr Abubakar Murabus-Tata, said they received a distress call that an accident happened.
“At about 12.30 p.m today (Feb. 4), we received a distress call that an accident happened on Kaduna-Zaria expressway precisely at Dumbin Rauga, about six kilometres away from Zaria.
“It involved two vehicles, a long DAF truck and a Toyota Hiace commercial Bus with registration numbers FKY 321 YF and XB 632 NSR, respectively.
“The accident was as a result of dogging potholes by the truck thereby jammed the bus and subsequently bursted in flames which led to the death of four people, three males and a female.”
He said 12 people were involved in the accident, 10 persons were inside the bus while two were in the truck (truck driver and his boy), adding that nothing happened to the truck driver and his boy.
Murabus-Tata said of the 10 people inside the bus six were responding to treatment at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Shika, where the corpses were also deposited.
“Two of the victims were burnt to ashes and two others died while on the way to the hospital. Actually when we reached the scene of accident the vehicles were still on flames.
“We had no option than to seek the services of the fire service who immediately responded and aided to quench the fire. One person inside the bus was not identified because he burnt beyond recognition and nobody knows where he is coming from.
“In view of that we reported the case to the Chairman, Zaria Local Government, who authorised us to go and bury him and the man has been buried according to Islamic rights,” he said.
The Unit Commander attributed the accident to overspeeding and appealed to motorists to be cautious while on wheels and always respect traffic rules and regulations to arrive their respective destination safely.
On the veteran journalists, Murabus-Tata said he had no idea about it but their main duty in the event of an accident was to rush the survivours to hospital .
“Actually I don’t know, you know when an accident happened our own is to rush them to hospital and those who died if their relations are around with the collaboration of the police we release the corpse to them.”
However, daughter to the deceased journalist, Ms Dame Dominic, confirmed that her father died in the accident, saying that she was still in ABUTH Shika waiting for her uncle to come for the corpse.
According to her, the deceased left behind four children including three female and a male. (NAN)
