No fewer than 22 students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, would have perished on Saturday when the vehicle conveying them was involved in an auto crash along Okigwe axis of the nightmarish Enugu/ Port Harcourt Expressway.
The students were going for a burial ceremony of the late mother of their course mate at Mbaitolu Ikeduru in Imo State when the accident occurred around 10am.
Speaking with journalists at the scene of the incident, one of the victims who simply identified herself as Delight, a second year student of Library and Information studies, blamed the accident on the deplorable condition of the highway.
According to her, the driver of the bus conveying them was about overtaking another vehicle when he suddenly saw a dangerous pothole in the middle of the road, and in his attempt to dodge it, the vehicle veered off from the highway and started somersaulting.
She said after somersaulting for several times “we all saw ourselves in the median of the expressway way trapped in the vehicles with the roof upside down.”
It took the combined efforts of other commuters and sympathisers to evacuate the injured passengers out of the badly damaged bus which has the inscription of Christ Church Chapel Choir C4, UNN Campus.
Although no life was lost virtually all the passages were seriously injured, and their choir robes as well as other personal effects littered on the ground.
A crowd of sympathisers helped to get the critically injured ones to hospitals at Okigwe for medical treatment .
Some people were overheard raining curses on government for its failure to repair the Enugu/ PortHarcourt Expressway which has claimed so many lives through accidents which have become a regular occurrence on the highway.
The Federal Government said last year said it had awarded contract for the total reconstruction of the dual carriage way, but it was observed that work was still at a very slow pace by the construction firm handling the contract.
The contract was segmented and are being handled by two firms both of who are crawling particularly the one handling Umuahia /Lokpanta axis which blocked one lane around Ihube area where work h
