No fewer than 18 people narrowly escaped death on Sunday when a commercial vehicle conveying All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters rammed into a crowd in the Ringim Local Government Area of Jigawa State.
The victims were among Jigawa residents gathered along the roadside in Yakasawa village, about 2 km from Ringim town, to welcome Governor Umar Namadi for the 15th edition of the “Citizens and Government Engagement Programme”.
The programme was organised by the Jigawa state government.
According to an eyewitness, the Volkswagen Golf, with registration number FKJ 102 JB, lost control and veered off the road before ploughing into the crowd.
An eyewitness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, claimed the truck lost control as it approached the massive crowd of fans.
“The driver was not in control of the vehicle, and it suddenly veered off the road and crashed into the people standing by the roadside,” a witness told me.
According to the eyewitness, the victims were not identified at the scene of the incident.
“We didn’t have time to identify them; our priority was to rush them to the hospital and get them the medical attention they needed,” the eyewitness added.
According to the eyewitness, after the incident, people rushed to help the victims, transferring them from the automobile to a safer area along the roadside before a Federal Road Safety Corps vehicle arrived to transport them to the hospital.
Another eyewitness, Saminu Shehu Sunday, said, “They were immediately rushed to Ringim General Hospital in an FRSC vehicle for medical attention.”
ASC Badruddeen Tijjani, the Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Jigawa, confirmed the incident, saying preliminary investigations revealed the motorist was speeding and attempted to dodge a pothole before crashing.
“The vehicle was carrying passengers when it lost control and crashed, affecting 18 people in total,” according to the report.
He stated that no deaths occurred, but the passengers in the APC supporters vehicle and those involved were injured to varied degrees.
“The victims were quickly evacuated to Ringim General Hospital for treatment by NSCDC personnel and the Federal Road Safety Corps,” he said.
Tijjani assured that the command would conduct a thorough investigation into the incident to determine its cause and prevent similar accidents in the future.
The NSCDC spokesperson urged motorists to exercise caution on the roads, especially in areas with potholes, to avoid such accidents.
He also praised the prompt response of the NSCDC personnel on the ground and the FRSC, who ensured the victims received timely medical attention.
The incident comes less than four months after a similar crash in Birniwa LGA in Jigawa state claimed the life of a former councillor during the fourth edition of the same programme.
Attempts to get comments from the state Commissioner for Information, Sagir Musa, were unsuccessful as calls to his phone went unanswered.
