Three perish, one injured in road crash in A’Ibom
Ini Billie, Uyo
Three female passengers on a tricycle have died while a male passenger sustained injury in a road crash that happened near Akon community along Calabar-Itu highway in Itu Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
Our correspondent learnt that the accident occurred on Saturday night when a tricycle rider rammed into a Mack truck, killing all the three female occupants on board.
Angered by the frequent accidents along the road, youths of the area were said to have barricaded the Calabar-Itu highway for several hours, causing a gridlock that stretched to the neighbouring community of Odiok.
Many passengers were said to have been stranded as a result, while the youths chanted songs and wielded machetes and sticks, scaring away officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps who went for the rescue operation.
The Deputy Corps Commander in charge of Operations, FRSC, David Ironuje who confirmed the incident on Sunday in Uyo described the accident as unfortunate.
He said the command has always cautioned road users to take necessary precautions while driving on highways to minimize incidents of road crashes in the state.
“Our prayer is that deaths should be removed completely from our roads. It is so unfortunate that this one happened. Our advice is that the truck driver should not think that they are the owners of the road and the Keke Napep operators on their part should not be meandering along the road.
“Some of them will see a truck coming and will like to quickly meander their way. This is very wrong; they should keep to their lanes. The ember months are here with us, our prayer is that we will not experience fatal road crashes,” he said.
The deputy sector commander said it took the intervention of the Special Assistant to Governor Udom Emmanuel on Projects for the youths to clear the blockage.
“Yesterday (Saturday) the youths did not allow our boys to conduct rescue operation, they barricaded the road chanting war songs but today the SA to the Governor on Project came and was able to pacify the youths before allowing our boys. The road is now clear,” Ironuje said.
