Dangote Trailer Kills Soldier, One Civilian Hospitalised

ONE soldier from the 3 Armoured Division, Maxwell Khobe Cantonment in Jos, Corporal Abubakar Hassan, was crushed to death on Thursday evening by a trailer belonging to Dangote Group when it lost control. Five other people who sustained various injuries were treated and discharged that same day, leaving the sixth person whose injury was severe on admission at the Bingham University Teaching Hospital in Jos. The chairman, Medical Advisory Council (CMAC) of the hospital, Dr.

Mikah Samaila, who took The Guardian round the wards where the admitted victim is, confirmed the incident.  According to Samaila, the accident happened in the evening of Thursday. He said he was still going round the wards supervising patients when all of a sudden he heard people shouting in front of the hospital and his attention was distracted. “On getting there, I saw a Dangote trailer which I learnt lost control right from “A” Division of the Nigeria Police Command in Jos, (a distance of about one kilometre away). One soldier died instantly and his name is Abubakar Hassan. As at the time the accident happened, he could not be immediately identified but was referred to as “unknown man.” It was this morning (Thursday) that his identity was known as Abubakar Hassan,” he explained. He said, “out of the six people who sustained injuries, five of them were treated and discharged immediately. But the sixth person had to be treated and admitted because of the seriousness of his injury.” Samaila pointed out that the people commended the driver of the truck who was shouting on top of his voice to other vehicles and commuters to clear from the road because the brake of the vehicle had failed and could not control it. “The people said that the casualty figures would have been higher but for that warning and alarm by the trailer driver.” The body of the deceased soldier has been deposited in the hospital mortuary till the authority concerned comes around to claim it. As at the time of the accident, he was on his motorcycle. The other victim who is admitted in the hospital has a fracture in the left femur, according to Samaila. The admitted victim too was on his “Keke NAPEP” but was taken to the hospital unconscious. According to one “Keke NAPEP” operator who took the reporter to the hospital, who saw everything live, five ‘Keke NAPEP’ machines were crushed while two other vehicles were also smashed by the trailer as he narrowly escaped being affected because he was coming from an opposite direction. It was the soldiers who came to mourn their dead colleague that gave the rank of the soldier as a Corporal in the army who was riding his motorcycle. The trailer and the damaged Keke Napep and two other vehicles were immediately removed from the scene that Thursday evening so that no trace of the vehicles could be found. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the Plateau State Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police Abuh Emmanuel, confirmed the incident, adding that full investigation has commenced to find out what actually caused the incident.

The hospitalised civilian