But for providence, no fewer than 22 students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka would have died on Saturday when the vehicle conveying them to a burial was involved in an auto crash.
It was learnt that the auto accident occurred around the Okigwe area of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway.
The students were going for a burial of the mother of one of their course mates at Mbaitolu Ikeduru in Imo State when the accident happened around 10am.
Speaking with our correspondent at the scene of the incident, one of the victims, who identified herself simply as Delight, a second-year student of Library and Information Studies, blamed the accident on the deplorable condition of the highway.
She said 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 the highway and somersaulted.
The victim added that after the vehicle somersaulted many times, “we all found ourselves in the median of the expressway, trapped in the vehicle with the roof upside down.”
It took the combined efforts of other commuters and sympathisers to squeeze the victims out of the badly damaged bus which had the inscription of Christ Church Chapel Choir C4, UNN Campus.
Although no life was lost, all the passages were injured, while their choir robes, as well as other personal effects, littered the ground.
A crowd of sympathisers was observed helping to evacuate the critically injured ones to hospitals at Okigwe for medical treatment.
Some people were overheard raining curses on government for failure to repair the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, which they said had claimed many lives through accidents. Punch
First Bank sponsors Journalists’ London international course
First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Limited has stressed the need for journalists in the country to keep abreast of trends in the profession as well as in the business world even as it sponsored journalists to London for a four-day course.
Speaking during the broad-based international Advanced Financial Journalism course at the Press Association Centre in London, United Kingdom, the head, Marketing and Corporate communications, Mrs Folake Ani-Mumuney, said this would help in accurate reportage of issues and events.
She said the FBN-sponsored course was in continuation of its commitment to enhance capacity building in the media industry, noting that “First Bank is interested in the quality of journalism practice in the country and we are committed to doing what we can to see that this quality is continuously upgraded from time to time.
“The bank is a long term partner in capacity development and empowerment and we are committed to supporting this initiative, working with different recognised partners and stakeholders from within and outside the country to provide excellent training opportunities that would enhance the capacity of Nigerian journalists.
“With this batch of journalists in this training, the number of those that have benefitted from the bank’s training sessions have risen to 50. As more journalists benefit from the training, we believe that First Bank would have succeeded in improving the quality of coverage, reporting and writing that we see in the Nigerian media. First Bank will continue to make sure that this happens in the long term.” she said
The international training programme is currently in its second year and falls under the Bank’s widely acknowledged intervention initiative tagged, “Media Thought Leadership Capacity Enhancement Initiative”.
As in the previous year, the journalists who cut across from different beats including online, electronic and print journalism were trained in core financial journalism which covers macro and micro economics reporting as well as reporting and writing on and about corporates. The course also took into consideration other aspects of reporting such as health, culture, brand, corporate social responsibility and writing for social media.
Managing director of PMA Media Training, Riva Elliott on her own part said “we are particularly glad to be providing this training for the second year running, which we believe will greatly improve the quality of work that the delegates do. We look forward to having them here in London.”
