The police in Jigawa State have confirmed the death of 21 persons, including the 11 disqualified military recruitment applicants, following a bridge collapse in Gwaram local government area of the state.
Blueprint reports that the bridge collapsed following heavy flooding.
The chairperson of Jigawa Civil Society Forum, Musbahu Basirka, told our correspondent that the victims were travelling in a Hummer commuter bus from Kano to Adamawa when the incident happened.
Basirka said the dead include a teenage girl but one of the applicants survived with leg fracture.
Confirming the incident, the police spokesperson in Jigawa, Lawan Adam, told reporters that it occurred on Sunday on the Gwaram-Basirka road.
He said a Hummer bus conveying 18 passengers from Kano to Adamawa and an unregistered lorry conveying three passengers fell into a broken culvert covered by flood water.
“Today, Sunday, the 15th of August 2021, at about 6 a.m., a distress call was received by the police from Radabi village that an accident had occurred along Gwaram-Basirka road.
“The accident occurred after one Hummer bus with reg. no. FYK 406 ZA conveying 18 passengers from Kano state to Adamawa state and a Canter lorry conveying 3 passengers to unknown destination fell into a broken culvert full of water.
“Victims were evacuated to Basirka hospital, where 21of the passengers were confirmed dead by medical doctors,” Mr Shiisu said.
However, he said one of the passengers, identified as Simon Chinapi, aged 26, of Mubi, in Adamawa, survived the accident.
“The Commissioner of Police in the state, Aliyu Tafida, has visited the scene and directed for prompt and discrete investigation into the incident,” the police spokesperson said.
Speaking at the site of the incident, Jigawa state deputy governor, Alhaji Umar Namadi, said the corpses of the deceased were deposited in one of the health facilities in the area.
He added that Adamawa state government has been contacted and some of the parents whose contacts were found in luggage of the deceased passengers were contacted.
“And for those whose parents’ contacts were not found, their dead bodies will be deposited in the mortuary to prevent them from deposing,’’ he said.
The deputy governor gave directive to the site engineer to provide a temporary alternative way for light vehicles with immediate effect.
