A road accident which occurred yesterday along Maiduguri- Kano road has claimed the lives of 18 passengers and injured six others, witnesses said.
The accident, which took place at Jakana village in Borno State, was as a result of head on collusion between an 18-seater Borno Express Bus and a Volkswagen taxi, villagers said. "The accident took place around 2.30pm and the people that died included men and women while six others sustained injuries," resident Al-Amin Bakura said.
Bakura said villagers had made efforts to rescue the trapped victims from the mingled vehicles without success.
Another witness, Hannatu Yar Baba, said she heard the trapped victims crying and wailing. "It was a gory scene. I cried as we saw them dying and blood gushing out," she said. Jakana is 40 kilometres west of Maiduguri, the state capital.
Daily Trust gathered that few minutes after the accident, rescuers from the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) from Benesheikh, the headquarters of Kaga local government area arrived at the scene.
A middle cadre officer who does not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak, described the accident as "a disaster" and attributed it to "over speeding and lack of patience."
He said both survivors and the deceased were taken to hospitals in Maiduguri.
Efforts to speak to the Borno State head of operations of the FRSC, Amos Thizha on phone failed.
Accidents along Maiduguri - Kano busy road are recurrent. The road is the busiest in the North east as it stretches to Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Central African Republic.
Daily Trust