Jonathan’s motorcade rescues accident victims

The president’s convoy helped the injured in Ekiti state

The advance team of President Goodluck Jonathan’s entourage, returning from Ado-Ekiti on Sunday rendered emergency rescue services to accident victims on the Lokoja-Abuja highway, witnesses say.

The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reported that the accident, which occurred at Okpu village, few kilometres after Lokoja, involved two cars carrying 11 people.

A Nissan Almera car with registration number AH 47 KAA going to Lokoja and a Honda Accord model with registration number BG945BWR en-route Abuja, were involved in the accident.

The two vehicles had a head-on collision with serious impact, causing varying degrees of injury to the occupants of the vehicles.

The accident occurred few minutes before the presidential motorcade came by the scene, NAN reported. Mr Jonathan was in Ekiti state over the weekend on an official visit.

As the convoy arrived, the president’s security team rescued victims trapped in the two cars.

The front door of the passenger seat of the Nissan car was axed before a middle aged woman, who was inside, could be rescued.

The medical team, led by Dr Aliyu Usman of the State House Clinic, rendered emergency medical treatment to the victims, aided by two nurses.

Later, a team of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, led by one Mohammed Haruna, arrived the scene of the accident about 30 minutes into the rescue operation.

The victims were taken to the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, in an FRSC rescue van for further medical attention.

An eye witness, Aliyu Sadiq, said that the accident was caused by speed, dangerous driving and the poor state of the road.

The eye witness, who is a commercial bus driver, said he plied the road on daily basis, and that there was hardly a day that an accident is not recorded on the road.

(NAN)