Kaduna Police say 16 passengers died in road accident, not killed by gunmen

The Kaduna State Police Command has refuted reports of the killing of 16 travelers by gunmen along the Kaduna-Abuja highway last Tuesday. 

The Command clarified that a Hummer bus conveying travellers from Kano to Abuja was involved in a fatal accident along Kaduna-Zaria highway, killing 16 persons, and not gunmen as reported.

In a statement by its spokesman, Mohammad Jalige, the Command dismissed the report about gunmen killing the travellers issued by and aide of Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.

While consoling the Kano State Government and its people over the loss, Jalige explained: “On December 8, at 0120hrs, there was a lone fatal motor vehicle accident along Kaduna-Zaria expressway involving a Hummer Bus belonging to Yasalam Transport, with registration number FGE 553 ZS, driven by one Mallam Mohammadu Baban Yau, ‘m’ of Danbatta LGA of Kano State.

“The bus was conveying 19 passengers from Kano State heading to Abuja on a business trip. However, on reaching Alcon Filing Station, Opposite Dr. Ibrahim Jalo House, Rigachukun, Igabi LGA, Kaduna, the driver lost control of the vehicle, summersaulted and fell into a ditch, as a result of which nine passengers died on the spot, while 10 others sustained varying degrees of injuries.

“The victims were immediately rushed to St. Gerard’s Hospital Kakuri, Kaduna, where 7 additional passengers unfortunately gave up the ghost while receiving medical attention, bringing the number of causalities to 16, while three persons survived and were undergoing treatment.”

The statement said it was with a deep sense of responsibility that the Command was responding to the misinformation making round, attributing the incident to killing by unknown gunmen. 

“The Command, by this release, states the facts as it happened and implore the public to discontinue the attribution of this painful loss of lives to banditry, as its received the news of the incident with empathy, but needed to make the clarifications on the matters bothering on national security to allay the fears and apprehension the misleading information must have put in the minds of people and road users. 

“Going by the correction of the misleading information and the facts deduced from this release, the Commissioner of Police, Umar M. Muri, is once again calling on the public and media partners in particular to always follow the ethics of their noble profession in the interest of the nation by corroborating any security information from the relevant and approved protocol to avoid being caught in the wave of spreading unsubstantiated reports,” Jalige pleaded.