33 women going for burial party drown

A commercial bus conveying mostly women on a burial trip from Lagos to Benin plunged into River J4, near Ogbere on the Ijebu-Ode-Ore Expressway on Friday, leaving no fewer than 33 persons dead.

The Head of Operation of the FRSC in Ogun, Mrs Cecilia Alao, said that the accident occurred at about 12 noon when the driver of the 36-seater coastal bus slept off.



Alao said that the exact number of passengers and the registration number of the vehicle were yet to be ascertained.

She said that all the victims, apart from the driver, were women travelling from Lagos to Benin to attend a burial ceremony.

The FRSC head of operations, who described the rescue operation as difficult, said that the command engaged the services of local divers who helped to rescued three of the passengers.

‘’We also hired a crane to pull the vehicle from the driver but after trying from 12 p.m to 6 p.m, we could not find the bus and other victims apart from the three.

‘’All other efforts to locate the vehicle and the victims proved abortive, the operation will continue over the night as we are not going to relent in our efforts,” she said.

Alao said that the three survivors had been taken to hospital at Ore in Ondo State.