AN elderly farmer has been reported to
have been crushed to death during an accident involving one of the
vehicles in the convoy of the Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi
Okowa, around Umutu, in Ukwuani Council Area of the state.
Our correspondent gathered on Wednesday
that the accident happened on Friday when one of the buses in the
governor’s convoy was returning from the Niger Delta Stakeholders’
Meeting, held at the Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun. It was
hosted by Chief Edwin Clark.
A source within the convoy told our
correspondent that the bus carrying the pressmen ran into the man, who
was said to be returning from his farm. He was said to have tried to
dodge a pothole along the Agbor/Abraka expressway.
Some of the pressmen in the vehicle also
sustained varying degrees of injuries, prompting them to almost lynch
the driver, until Okowa personally intervened.
The governor later ordered that the victim, whose name could not be immediately obtained, be rushed to a hospital.
The journalists involved included some correspondents of the state-owned newspaper, The Pointer, DBS
and other national print and electronic media. However, they were
barred by the state government from divulging the details of the
accident to newsmen.
It was gathered that the victim had
earlier been rushed to an undisclosed hospital in Abraka, the home
community of the Delta State University. Later, he was said to have been
referred to Asaba for medical treatment, where he died.
Another source, who confirmed the
development to our correspondent, refused to disclose the hospital where
the victim died. He, however, said that the corpse had been deposited
at a morgue in the state capital.
The driver of the 18-seater bus
conveying the journalists was, as at Wednesday afternoon, still being
detained at the police headquarters in Asaba, awaiting investigation on
the incident.
A senior police officer at the Delta
State Command confirmed the development to our correspondent but warned
not to be quoted, based on the sensitivity of the report.
But when contacted, the spokesman for
the Command, SP Celestina Kalu, could not immediately confirm the
development. She promised to investigate and call back. However, she had
yet to call back as of the time of filing this report.
However, our correspondent gathered that
there was grumbling among those said to be part of the trip, as a
result of Okowa’s failure to ask after the state of health of some of
the injured journalists.
One of the journalists involved
complained bitterly to our correspondent. He said they were not catered
for by the state government.
Efforts to speak with the state
Commissioner for Information, Mr. Patrick Ukah, or have the governor’s
spokesman, Mr. Charles Ehiedu Aniagwu, to speak on the incident, proved
abortive.
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