• Home
  • Anti-Corruption
  • Fact-Check
  • Economy
  • National
    • Government
  • Security
  • Features
  • State
  • Event
    • PR Nigeria Award
  • E-Paper
Search
  • Home
  • About
  • Adverts
  • Contact
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
PRNIGERIA PRNigeria News
PRNIGERIA PRNIGERIA
  • Home
  • Anti-Corruption
    • Engr Abba Babagana Dalori

      Engr Dalori Forfeits Galaxy Hospital, Petrol Station, Properties & Cash

      Chinese nationals jailed in Lagos

      Court Jails Nine Chinese Nationals for Cybercrime in Lagos

      ASUU

      Tackle Corruption, Institutional Decay – ASUU Charges FG

      EFCC Arraigns Bauchi Accountant General Over N8bn Fraud as Court Sentences…

      PRNigeria logo fearured image

      EFCC Arraigns Ex-Convict, Other for Naira Abuse in Lagos

  • Fact-Check
  • Economy
    • Acting Controller General of Customs, Nigerian Customs Services, NSC, Ag. CG Bashir Adewale Adeniyi

      Adeniyi Inaugurates Lagos School Renovated by Nigeria Customs 

      Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada

      Customs’ Maiwada Named Among Nigeria’s 50 Most Influential PR Voices

      Acting Controller General of Customs, Nigerian Customs Services, NSC, Ag. CG Bashir Adewale Adeniyi

      Customs Exposes Scam Over Form M Migration to B’Odogwu Platform

      CBN

      The Facts About Nigeria’s Debts Burden Under Tinubu’s Watch By Zekeri…

      Ibrahim Yahaya Dandakata of Arewa Economic Forum AEF

      AEF Slams CBN’s New BDC Policy, Cites Threat to Northern Economy…

  • National
    • Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB arrested by Nigerian security services

      Nnamdi Kanu’s Threat to Break Up Nigeria Was Deliberate, FG Insists

      NUJ election

      NUJ Urges Constitutional Backing for Journalists, Proposes Media Bailout Fund

      Tinubu Appoints IBB’s Son as Chairman, Bank of Agriculture, Names Heads…

      Bashir Adewale Adeniyi Customs Boss

      In Rivers, Customs Hands Over N20.5bn Worth of Fake Drugs to…

      Military Troops in Action

      COUNTER-TERRORISM OPERATIONS: Troops Arrest Terrorists Collaborators, Eliminate Scores, Seize Weapons, Rescue…

    • Government
      • IPRA GWA

        IPRA Calls on UN to Curb Misinformation from AI and Social…

        Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB arrested by Nigerian security services

        Nnamdi Kanu’s Threat to Break Up Nigeria Was Deliberate, FG Insists

        NUJ election

        NUJ Urges Constitutional Backing for Journalists, Proposes Media Bailout Fund

        Tinubu Appoints IBB’s Son as Chairman, Bank of Agriculture, Names Heads…

        Late President Muhammadu Buhari

        Critique of Renaming University of Maiduguri after Muhammadu Buhari By Dr…

  • Security
    • Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB arrested by Nigerian security services

      Nnamdi Kanu’s Threat to Break Up Nigeria Was Deliberate, FG Insists

      Nigerian Police Force

      Benue Police Nab Notorious Arms Traffickers, Recover Rocket Launcher, AK-47 Rifles,…

      Bashir Adewale Adeniyi Customs Boss

      In Rivers, Customs Hands Over N20.5bn Worth of Fake Drugs to…

      Military Troops in Action

      COUNTER-TERRORISM OPERATIONS: Troops Arrest Terrorists Collaborators, Eliminate Scores, Seize Weapons, Rescue…

      Lord Jonathan Marland, Chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC), and Ministry of Defence Perm Sec Ambassador Gabriel Tanimu Aduda

      UK-Nigeria Pact to Drive Defence Innovation, Joint Ventures

  • Features
    • Late President Muhammadu Buhari

      Critique of Renaming University of Maiduguri after Muhammadu Buhari By Dr…

      Late President Muhammadu Buhari

      Buhari’s Shocker: I look Forward to Leaving, and when it’s …

      Buhari: The Soldier Who Couldn’t Conquer Democracy By Umar Farouk Bala

      Gen Lucky Irabor and Muhammadu Buhari

      Beyond the Public Gaze: Gen Irabor’s Intimate Farewell to Buhari

      Vice Admiral Awwal Z Gambo and Late President Muhammadu Buhari

      Tribute to the Late Former President Buhari, By Vice Admiral Awwal…

  • State
    • IPRA GWA

      IPRA Calls on UN to Curb Misinformation from AI and Social…

      Nigerian Police Force

      Benue Police Nab Notorious Arms Traffickers, Recover Rocket Launcher, AK-47 Rifles,…

      Bashir Adewale Adeniyi Customs Boss

      In Rivers, Customs Hands Over N20.5bn Worth of Fake Drugs to…

      Nigerian Navy

      Navy Hands Over Seized 1,575kg of Indian Hemp to NDLEA in…

      Nigerian Police Force

      Notorious Bandit Kingpin, Abubakar Magaji Arrested in Sokoto, Gun, Ammunition Recovered

  • Event
    • Dr Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan of NCC

      APRA Secretary General Omoniyi Ibietan Named ‘PR Change Maker’

      Prof Saudat Abdulbaqi

      Prof Saudat Abdulbaqi Makes History as First Female Dean of UniIlorin’s…

      Late Oba Sikiru Adetona and Late President Muhammadu Buhari

      Oba Sikiru Adetona: The Day Ijebu Lost Its Lion By Tahir…

      President & Chairman of Governing Council, Dr. Ike Neliaku

      On World PR Day, NIPR Charts Bold Path to National Renewal

      Late President Muhammadu Buhari

      Northwest Governors Mourn Buhari, Declare Tuesday Public Holiday

    • PR Nigeria Award
  • E-Paper
Home National Zaria-Kano auto-crash victims cry out over slow pace of work on Abuja-Kano...
  • National

Zaria-Kano auto-crash victims cry out over slow pace of work on Abuja-Kano highway

By
Mohammed Dahiru Lawal, Prnigeria
-
June 16, 2021
The road accident scene
The road accident scene

Zaria-Kano auto-crash victims cry out over slow pace of work on Abuja-Kano highway
By Mohammed Dahiru Lawal

 

The road accident survivor
The road accident survivor

On the morning of June 5, when 27-year-old Abba Ahmad Dahiru, a Computer Biology student of Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Kaduna State, was keeping up with logistics of mutual acquaintances bound for the wedding ceremony of a childhood friend in Zaria, little did he know that the cold hands of death would come calling.

“When I got the news, I was devastated beyond measure, confused even, because I didn’t know if my son was among those who survived until the hospital in Zaria released the corpses and all of us whose wards were on that trip started sorting out the dead bodies and identifying our own,” said Ahmad Bele, an ex-employee of Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education and father of one of the deceased victims of a fatal motor accident along Zaria-Kano Highway.

The victims’ 18-seater Kano Line Bus collided with a Toyata RAV 4 at one of the numerous diversions on the road owing to the ongoing construction of the AbujaKaduna-Zaria-Kano Highway by Julius Berger Nigeria Ltd.

An investigation published last December by PRNigeria showed that the slow pace of work on the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway has contributed to the high rates of accidents along the corridor.

Nearly 5,000 road traffic accidents were recorded in the Kano-Kaduna zone of the road between 2017, when the contract for the reconstruction of the road was approved, and 2020, months to its initial delivery date before it was again extended to 2023.

Exclusive medical records of road traffic accident victims along the route obtained during the investigation, which was done with support from MacArthur Foundation and the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), revealed that men between the ages of 21 and 62 years account for about 81 percent of accident victims on the road during the period.

Except for 2020, analysis showed that there has been a steady rise in the rate of road accidents since 2017 when the contractor for the road moved to site.

The Kaduna zone recorded the highest number of accidents in 2018 and 2019, according to the annual report by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). FRSC officials confirmed that the state of the road is largely responsible for the record of high casualties along the Kaduna zone.

In 2017, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the award of N155.48 billion to Julius Berger Plc, for the construction of a hybrid two-lane-six-lane road network that starts from Abuja through Kaduna-Zaria to Kano.

The grave where the eight dead youths were buried after the road accident
The grave where the eight dead youths were buried after the road accident

The FEC on February 12, 2020, again approved another N867 million for the engineering design to add an extra lane on both sides of the 375-kilometer road.

With barely 30% of the road project completed during the period of investigation under review, several attempts to get an official explanation were unsuccessful. Freedom of Information, FOI, requests sent to the Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning for details of budgetary allocations and releases on the road project was greeted with silence. A similar request sent to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing (FMWH) for details of the project completion and projected time of completion also got no response. Julius Berger, the contractor handling the project, has not been forthcoming on the status of the project.

Despite several FOI requests, the company refused to give any information on the road, particularly specifications, costing and reason for the delay.
Beset with no less than eight major diversions, dangerous potholes, loss of lives and disruption of economic activities, the road has aggravated the sufferings of commuters and residents along the Abuja-Kano corridor.

Bandits have also taken advantage of the poor condition of the road to carry out their criminal and nefarious activities, including kidnapping people for ransom.

But for most families and communities along the highway, the road has become a memorial of near misses, injuries and untimely deaths.

Read Also:

  • IPRA Calls on UN to Curb Misinformation from AI and Social Media
  • Nnamdi Kanu’s Threat to Break Up Nigeria Was Deliberate, FG Insists
  • ‎FACT-CHECK: Was Obi Ever Pictured Having Coffee with Gen Sani Abacha at the Presidential Villa?

“When I informed my wife of the tragedy, she took it as a silent shock but when relatives and other family members started trooping in, the reality dawned on her, and they all began to scream. It took some level of comforting before I was able to calm her and the other family members down,” Bele said.

He narrated how he watched his son preparing for the entire trip that morning before he left for Zaria:

“I watched him prepare for the trip. He even uploaded it on his Whatsapp status praying for journey mercies. They got to Zaria safely, conducted their business and while on their way back, some few kilometers away from Tashar Yari, they took one of those numerous diversions on the highway. Unfortunately, the Toyata RAV4 whose occupants were also traveling back from another wedding in Kano, was coming from the same lane so there was nowhere to swerve or divert and they collided head on into each other.”

Disputed number of Deaths:

Funeral proceeding of the dead victims
Funeral proceeding of the dead victims

Initial media reports (not PRNigeria) have claimed that 17 people involved in the auto crash died, but findings revealed that 6 persons out of that number have so far survived the accident making the total death toll 13.

“The Kano Line bus was an 18-seater, but they sat three in a row instead of four, in all, they were fifteen including the driver. Seven of them died on the spot, one died the following day after we buried the initial 7 making it 8. If the driver who is from Tofa is added and has since been buried there, the number of deaths in the Kano Line bus equal 9 and that of the other vehicle is four,” Mallam Ahmad, an eye witnessed disclosed.

It was further gathered that of the 15, six survivors in critical condition with various degrees of fractures were recorded. Only two of the victims who have since been discharged had one fracture each, PRNigeria can authoritatively report.

Mysterious survivors

The mysterious road accident survivor
The mysterious road accident survivor

One of the survivors, Ibrahim Bashir Ibrahim who spoke on the incident said he could not recall what transpired as he had plugged in his earpiece and dozed off immediately after they had taken off from Zaria.

“I just woke up and found myself surrounded by dead bodies and overhearing onlookers saying this one is not dead,” Ibrahim recounts.

Musa Abdullahi, one of the passengers who was part of the ill-fated trip who also boarded the bus from Zaria said he disembarked minutes into the journey and return to Zaria after he felt a strong urge to discontinue the trip.

Ten minutes after disembarking, Abdullahi got the call that shook his life – his friends were involved in a ghastly motor accident, and some were dead.

“That prompting to disembark came from the fact that I had promised some family members in Zaria that I will visit them after the wedding. Somehow, I lost my sim card as we were about leaving Kano, and I couldn’t reach them to tell them I was no longer coming. I just had to make it up,” Abdullahi explained.

It was not the same fate for another victim identified as Abba.

Narrating how Abba made the trip, Musa said he had to join the bus because his transport fare was not sufficient.

“He had only a thousand naira with him, but I pleaded with our friends to support him to make the trip. When he came to board the bus, there was even no space, so one of us – also a deceased victim now, offered to lap him that was how he made the journey.”

A cry for help

Family of the dead victims from the road accident
Family of the dead victims from the road accident

Parents of the victims have called on the Federal Government to concentrate on the speedy completion of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway as it has taken too long and causing so much loss of lives.

They called on concerned parties including state governors and federal legislators to play their part in ensuring the federal government expedite action on the road.

“Our sons are gone already, but with the speedy completion of the road, others don’t have to feel the pains we are now forced to go through,” Ahmad Bele who spoke on behalf of the concerned parents said.

By PRNigeria

VISIT OUR OTHER WEBSITES
PRNigeria.com EconomicConfidential.com PRNigeria.com/Hausa/
EmergencyDigest.com PoliticsDigest.ng TechDigest.ng
HealthDigest.ng SpokesPersonsdigest.com TeensDigest.ng
ArewaAgenda.com Hausa.ArewaAgenda.com YAShuaib.com
  • TAGS
  • Abuja-Kano
  • Zaria-Kano
Previous articleNCoS Redeploys 7 DCGs as CG Nababa Decorates Promoted Officers
Next articleCOVID19: Borno Lawmakers Panic Over Ali Modu Sheriff’s Participation in Buhari’s Visit
Mohammed Dahiru Lawal, Prnigeria
Mohammed Dahiru Lawal, Prnigeria
https://prnigeria.com
PRNigeria is the pioneer Press Release Distribution agency in Nigeria. A member of image Merchant Promotions limited, PRNigeria encourages individuals and organisations to be more transparent in their information management. with dedicated Editorial staffs, the PRNigeria ensures that information provided on its platforms are timely, factual and authoritative Read more at: //prnigeria.com/about/
Facebook Twitter

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB arrested by Nigerian security services

Nnamdi Kanu’s Threat to Break Up Nigeria Was Deliberate, FG Insists

‎FACT-CHECK: Was Obi Ever Pictured Having Coffee with Gen Sani Abacha at the Presidential Villa?

NUJ election

NUJ Urges Constitutional Backing for Journalists, Proposes Media Bailout Fund

Tinubu Appoints IBB’s Son as Chairman, Bank of Agriculture, Names Heads of Key Agencies

Bashir Adewale Adeniyi Customs Boss

In Rivers, Customs Hands Over N20.5bn Worth of Fake Drugs to NAFDAC

Military Troops in Action

COUNTER-TERRORISM OPERATIONS: Troops Arrest Terrorists Collaborators, Eliminate Scores, Seize Weapons, Rescue Captives Across N’East

Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada

Customs’ Maiwada Named Among Nigeria’s 50 Most Influential PR Voices

Late President Muhammadu Buhari

Critique of Renaming University of Maiduguri after Muhammadu Buhari By Dr Umar Ardo

FULL TEXT: President Tinubu Extols Muhammadu Buhari at Special FEC Session

Late President Muhammadu Buhari

Buhari’s Shocker: I look Forward to Leaving, and when it’s time, I go to my Grave By Femi Adesina

University of Maiduguri

JUST IN: Tinubu Renames UNIMAID After Muhammadu Buhari

Official_JAMB_logo

JAMB Raises Alarm Over 9,469 Illegal Admissions in 20 Tertiary Institutions

Recent Posts

  • IPRA Calls on UN to Curb Misinformation from AI and Social Media
  • Nnamdi Kanu’s Threat to Break Up Nigeria Was Deliberate, FG Insists
  • ‎FACT-CHECK: Was Obi Ever Pictured Having Coffee with Gen Sani Abacha at the Presidential Villa?
  • NUJ Urges Constitutional Backing for Journalists, Proposes Media Bailout Fund
  • Benue Police Nab Notorious Arms Traffickers, Recover Rocket Launcher, AK-47 Rifles, Ammunition
  • Home
  • About
  • Adverts
  • Contact
© 2020 PRNigeria. All Rights Reserved.
Latest News
IPRA Calls on UN to Curb Misinformation from AI and Social MediaNnamdi Kanu’s Threat to Break Up Nigeria Was Deliberate, FG Insists‎FACT-CHECK: Was Obi Ever Pictured Having Coffee with Gen Sani Abacha at the Presidential Villa?NUJ Urges Constitutional Backing for Journalists, Proposes Media Bailout FundBenue Police Nab Notorious Arms Traffickers, Recover Rocket Launcher, AK-47 Rifles, AmmunitionTinubu Appoints IBB's Son as Chairman, Bank of Agriculture, Names Heads of Key AgenciesIn Rivers, Customs Hands Over N20.5bn Worth of Fake Drugs to NAFDACCOUNTER-TERRORISM OPERATIONS: Troops Arrest Terrorists Collaborators, Eliminate Scores, Seize Weapons, Rescue Captives Across N'EastAdeniyi Inaugurates Lagos School Renovated by Nigeria Customs UK-Nigeria Pact to Drive Defence Innovation, Joint VenturesCustoms' Maiwada Named Among Nigeria’s 50 Most Influential PR VoicesCritique of Renaming University of Maiduguri after Muhammadu Buhari By Dr Umar ArdoFULL TEXT: President Tinubu Extols Muhammadu Buhari at Special FEC SessionAgain, FG Postpone Recruitment into Paramilitary AgenciesBuhari's Shocker: I look Forward to Leaving, and when it's time, I go to my Grave By Femi Adesina
X whatsapp