4 soldiers killed in Owerri-Aba highway auto crash
By Chidi Nkwopara
OWERRI — IT was a black weekend for men of the Nigerian Army, when their Toyota Hilux double cabin van had a head-on collision with a truck that claimed the lives of four soldiers along Owerri-Aba federal highway.
A villager, who claimed to have witnessed the accident, said that the Toyota Hilux van was heading towards Aba, Abia State, from Owerri, when the crash occurred at the Umudin, Ohekelem community along the ever-busy Owerri-Aba federal highway.
The villager also told Vanguard that although two other soldiers that had varying degrees of injuries survived the crash, sympathizers.
However, axes and other metal cutters were used to rip open the mangled Toyota van before the remains of the dead soldiers could be brought out.
It was not cleared at press time if the driver of the army van was among the survivors of the crash, but Vanguard gathered that an army rescue team took over of the scene and barricaded the highway.
“The soldiers drafted to the scene cordoned off the scene and barricaded the highway. This caused serious gridlock along the highway”, the villager recounted.
It was also gathered that following the endless gridlock, anxious motorists resorted to the long abandoned old Owerri-Aba road.
A female villager also told Vanguard that “the accident could have been avoided if the army driver was not overtaking dangerously.
“I am sure the army driver did not know that the truck was very close at the time he tried to overtake other vehicles,” the female villager said.
[Vanguard]
OWERRI — IT was a black weekend for men of the Nigerian Army, when their Toyota Hilux double cabin van had a head-on collision with a truck that claimed the lives of four soldiers along Owerri-Aba federal highway.
A villager, who claimed to have witnessed the accident, said that the Toyota Hilux van was heading towards Aba, Abia State, from Owerri, when the crash occurred at the Umudin, Ohekelem community along the ever-busy Owerri-Aba federal highway.
The villager also told Vanguard that although two other soldiers that had varying degrees of injuries survived the crash, sympathizers.
However, axes and other metal cutters were used to rip open the mangled Toyota van before the remains of the dead soldiers could be brought out.
It was not cleared at press time if the driver of the army van was among the survivors of the crash, but Vanguard gathered that an army rescue team took over of the scene and barricaded the highway.
“The soldiers drafted to the scene cordoned off the scene and barricaded the highway. This caused serious gridlock along the highway”, the villager recounted.
It was also gathered that following the endless gridlock, anxious motorists resorted to the long abandoned old Owerri-Aba road.
A female villager also told Vanguard that “the accident could have been avoided if the army driver was not overtaking dangerously.
“I am sure the army driver did not know that the truck was very close at the time he tried to overtake other vehicles,” the female villager said.
[Vanguard]
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