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About 18 passengers lost their lives in a fatal auto crash in the Ogbere area of the Ijebu East Local Council of Ogun State. The victims were passengers of an 18-seater Toyota Hiace passenger bus with registration number XA 690AKU.
The accident occurred along the busy Ijebu-Ode/ Ore Expressway. The Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency confirmed that petrol stored inside the vehicle caused the accident.
The agency’s public relations officer, Babatunde Akinbiyi, stated that one passenger sustained injuries. An eyewitness account, corroborated by the driver, revealed that a jerry can full of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) was inside the bus. It fell on its side when the vehicle reached a failed portion of the road. The PMS spilt on the bus floor and later dropped on the exhaust pipe, causing the vehicle to catch fire.
The driver was rescued and rushed to Rona Hospital in Ijebu-Ode, while the remains of the deceased were deposited at State Hospital Mortuary, Ijebu-Ode.
Akinbiyi, while commiserating with the families of the deceased, admonished drivers to refrain from storing fuel in jerry cans while in transit to avoid such incidents.
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