Auto crash: 16 roasted to death in Niger

By Hammed Salawu, Minna

This time the accident occurred at Kakapangi after Katearegi town in the Katcha local government area of the state, ROYAL NEWS reports.

According to an eyewitness the accident involved a Toyota Hiace bus conveying traders from Oyo state to Minna and a Tanker loaded with fuel enroute Bida town.

It was learnt that the vehicles were involved in head on collision resulting in both vehicles bursting into flames.

The eyewitness said the driver of the commercial vehicle and his15 passengers were trapped leading to their being roasted to death.

It could not be confirmed  if the occupants of the fuel tanker escaped or not but sympathisers at the scene however battled spiritedly  to recover the remains of those that were burnt in the commercial vehicle.

The Public Relatiins Officer of the Federal Road Commission in the state  Malam Raji Ejigogo who confirmed the story  said the organisation was yet to get details of the incident.

Ejigogo said  “We cannot say the number of casualty, our emergency accident team has gone to the area for on the spot investigation”

Observers have blamed the frequent accident accompanied by heavy casualty on the road to the bad nature of the road which had made it dusty and also impaired the vision of motorists.

The state government had awarded the contract for the rehabilitation of the road in 2016 but the project had been stalled as a result of non payment of the contractors.