Kingsley Nwezeh
23 December 2008
Lagos — Barely two weeks after the religious crisis that claimed hundreds of lives, Plateau State witnessed yet another tragic incident at the weekend when nine female footballers and their two coaches perished in a ghastly road accident along Mangu/Pankshin road.
An account said that the athletes numbering 15 were returning from a football match with a local team in Pankshin Local Government Area of the state when the Peugeot J5 in which they were travelling had a head-on collision with a commercial Volkswagen Golf car.
The vehicle conveying the athletes somersaulted several times and eventually went up in flames burning the occupants beyond recognition.
Before help could reach the victims, 11 of them had been consumed by the raging inferno.
Six of the athletes who were severely injured were rushed to a nearby hospital before they were eventually taken to Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) for treatment.
Speaking on the tragedy, Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Mr. Joel Gwatau, who confirmed the unfortunate incident, said the team from Jos North Local Government Area of the State had finished from a local tournament which they lost to another team and were on their way back to Jos when the tragic incident occurred.
Gwatau said those who lost their lives in the incident were burnt beyond recognition and those in the hospital were responding to treatment, adding that the casualties were high because nobody came to their rescue.
He added that the government was in the process of reaching out to the parents of the deceased and those who sustained injuries in the accident with a view to arranging a meeting between them and the government.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
