A fact-finding mission of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, ended in a tragedy Thursday as five members of the team lost their lives in a ghastly motor accident at Umudike on the Umuahia- Ikot Ekpene road.
The victims were identified as Senate president of NANS, Donald Onukaogu, who was a student of Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Assah Ejeita (FEDPOLY-Nekede), Duru Jacobs, who was the assistant national secretary of NANS, Zone B and another one simply identified as Japhet. The identity of the fifth person could not be ascertained as at press time.
Eye witnesses said the students died when a truck, which lost control while trying to avoid a pothole on the road, rammed into the bus conveying them to Uyo.
Saintprince International gathered that the NANS delegation was heading to Uyo to parley with the authorities over the closure of the University of Uyo following a student protest that claimed the lives of a number of students.
At the Federal Medical Centre Umuahia, where the bodies of the victims were conveyed to by men of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), sources said 12 persons were brought to the hospital out of which five were brought in dead. Others were in a critical condition while only a student came out of the accident without any injury.
It was further gathered that the NANS delegation had commenced their journey from Abuja on Wednesday and stopped over (FUTO) before resuming their journey Thursday.
Scores of sympathisers, including students of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) and passersby, who thronged the FMC, wept profusely as the bodies were being conveyed to the morgue.
Abia State Governor, Chief Theodore Orji, who visited the FMC to assess the situation, consoled NANS over the death of its officials.
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