At least, one prospective member of the National Youth Service Corps was killed in a fatal road accident that happened in Ebonyi State on Wednesday.
The deceased female prospective corps member was among a group of 12 prospective corps members in a 14-seater bus involved in the accident.
A community source in the area said the corps members boarded the bus in Enugu on Wednesday and were heading to the NYSC Orientation Camp located in Afikpo town, for their three-week orientation course.
They were believed to be prospective members of the 2024 Batch C Stream II set of corps members, who reported at the camp the same day.
The Enugu North Mass Transit bus, in which they were travelling, was said to have rammed into a parked truck beside the road.
The female corps member, whose name could not be ascertained, was said to have died from her injuries while her colleagues and other passengers sustained varying degrees of injuries.
They were rescued by residents and security agencies from the mangled bus and rushed to the David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences where they are receiving treatment.
The source said, “Corps members had an accident while going to the NYSC camp.
The accident happened at Amenu community in Okposi. A female corps member died.
“The bus is a 14-seater bus with 12 of them being corps members. Others sustained injuries.”
A source at the hospital, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed that the accident victims were brought to the hospital.
“Yes, I saw them in the evening. They were brought by the security officials. They are responding to treatment,” the source said.
The Ebonyi State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Igwe Henry, confirmed the accident.
He, however, said he had no details of the casualties as the victims were rescued before his officers got to the scene.
He said, “At the time our men from the Amasiri Unit Command got the information and got to the scene, the victims had been rescued.
They didn’t directly carry out the rescue, and therefore could not ascertain specifics of what happened.
“However, the crash occurred on January 22 at about 14.00 hours. The route was Amasiri-Okigwe, which they call Amenu village in Okposi.
“Two vehicles were involved, one was a Toyota commercial bus, grey colour, and the other was a Mercedes-Benz tipper(truck), and a commercial Mercedes-Benz tipper, the regular tipper that you see around.
“So, from preliminary findings, it might have been caused by excessive speed on the part of the commercial vehicle, that is the bus.
“But the details as to the number injured and so on have not been ascertained, because like I said, the victims were actually rescued by bystanders and then taken to the David Umahi Hospital in Uburu.”
According to him, the items recovered at the scene were in the custody of one Chief Amos of Amenu village in the same Okposi.
“At the King David’s Hospital, where my men went, the ones they saw were actually in a stable condition.”
The Ebonyi State Coordinator of NYSC, Mrs Foluke Oladeinde, also confirmed the accident.
Visibly in a state of shock, Mrs Oladeinde could only confirm the accident but didn’t give further details.
“I am not in the right frame of mind to talk now. I am in the hospital now. Yes, the accident occurred; but I can’t talk right now”, she said.
