THE NATION FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2011
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NEWS
Harvest of deaths on the highways The United Nations has urged member-states to halve injuries and fatalities from road crashes by 2020. Nigeria, which has the second highest rate of deaths through road crashes, some days ago, launched a committee to realise this. The launch of the initiative coincided with the ‘ember months’ when the rate of road crashes is believed to increase. Many doubt the sincerity of government in joining the global initiative, especially with the lacklustre approach to road rehabilitation and construction, writes OLUKOREDE YISHAU
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FAMILY of five, some days back, perished on the Tamburawa bridge along the Kano-Zaria road. Father, mother, two children and a brother went down with their dreams. The family’s head and driver of the ill-fated Mercedes Benz car was Abubakar Adamu, a 49-yearold resident of Badarawa Kaduna. He was travelling to Kano from Kaduna, with his wife, Maryam, 28; his brother, Ibrahim Adamu, 47; and his two children, four-year-old Halima and oneyear-old Muhammad Abubakar. They are all dead. No fewer than 34 people have died in accidents on the bridge, located at Kilometre 21 Kano Zaria federal highway in the last six months. On October 30, an expectant woman and 10 others died in a road crash in Imo State. A witness said a trailer rolled uncontrollably and fell on top of the 18-seater bus coming from Okigwe. The woman died when the vehicles were being broken with axes to rescue trapped passengers. Two days earlier, on October 28, four people were killed and another one injured in an accident along the Tegina-Kontagora road in Niger State. It was the turn of Anambra State on October 23, when an articulated vehicle crushed two people to death on the Onitsha-Awka old road, near Onitsha. The accident occurred at about 12:30 p.m., close to Afor-Nkpor market on the outskirts of Onitsha. In the last three months alone,
Police arrest editor
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HE police yesterday ransacked the office of National Accord and arrested one of its editors over stories about the country’s soccer organisation. The newspaper said plainclothes policemen arrested Editor Olajide Fashikun on Wednesday over stories about a letter carrying the supposed forged signature of FIFA President Sepp Blatter. Fashikun told The Associated Press yesterday that he was released on bail, though police impounded his laptop and hard drive as part of a slander investigation initiated by the Nigeria Football Federation. Harassment of journalists remains common in Nigeria, though the country has a vibrant press, the AP said.
‘Senate has no stand on subsidy’ From Damisi Ojo, Akure
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•An accident on the Okene-Auchi road, which claimed 16 lives on Monday.
Nine injured in Oyo road crash
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O fewer than nine persons yesterday evening sustained injuries in a multiple accident along Oyo/Ibadan road. The accident involved two trailers and two cars. The immediate cause of d accident could not be immediately ascertained as at press time. Officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) helped in rescuing the victims. They were taken to the State Hospital, Oyo town.
Bode Durojaiye, Oyo
They were attended to at the accident and emergency unit. The acting Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr.Alayo Ayo, told The Nation on telephone that two persons sustained injuries on the forehead, three serious burns, and the remaining four sustained body injuries. He said no one died in d accident.
The road network
160,000 4,000
The country’s approximate no of roads
The estimated number of roads per state
close to 200 lives are believed to have been lost to road crashes. Five days ago, an accident claimed 30 lives in Edo State. The victims included children, travelling for the celebration. It occurred on the Benin-Okene-Abuja Express Road. Eyewitnesses said the accident, which occurred around Okpela, involved two commercial buses. The victims were reportedly trapped for several hours. It was a Herculean task removing them from the wrecked vehicles. On the same day, no fewer than 16 people died in a road crash on the Okene-Auchi Road in Kogi State. Two Toyota Hiace buses, travelling in opposite directions with 30 passengers on board, had a head-on collision about 13km from Okene in Kogi State Sunday Maku, Kogi State Sector Commander of the FRSC said the victims included nine men, six women and a baby. He said 10 other passengers, including eight men and two women, sustained injuries. He attributed the cause of the accident to dangerous overtaking. Corpses of the deceased were deposited at the Okene General Hospital mortuary, while the in-
15 The country’s percentage of paved roads
jured passengers were treated in the same hospital. Wednesday, November 2 did not end in Benin without tragedy striking again. No fewer than eight people died in a multiple accident along the Murtala- Muhammed Way in Benin City. The accident involved a commuter bus marked XK 563 USL, a Volkswagen Jetta car with registration number DG 744 BEN, a motorcycle and a tipper, which fell at the opposite side of the road. The lorry rammed into other vehicles. Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) boss Osita Chidoka, quoting a recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report, said Nigeria was rated 191st out of 192 countries with the world’s un-safest roads. According to Chidoka, if something radical was not done to rectify the bad state, road crashes, which had claimed 1.3m lives and made over 50 million people disabled, could increase by 65 per cent between 2015 and 2020. Dr. Sydney Ibeanusi has the mandate of the Federal Government to coordinate activities aimed at reducing the high number of deaths recorded on Nigerian roads. Some days ago,
Ibeanusi puts the figure at 162 deaths per 100,000. This is considered the world’s second highest. He said: “Our emphasis is to see how we can reduce this.” He added that there was hope relevant agencies would contribute to ensure proper funding for the programme as well as advocate policies adequate to the target. The UN Decade of Action on Road Safety and Injury Prevention, launched in May, aims to achieve significant reduction in road accident injuries and deaths by 2020 using contribution from several sectors. Inaugurating the Ibeanusi-ledcommittee, Minister of Health Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu said by the set date, “we should have drastically reduced loss of lives, loss of limbs and injury on our roads.” He said road crashes killed more people in Nigeria than diseases. The committee has members from agencies such as the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), police, fire service, Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA), ministries of works and health. The committee has the mandate to manage safety on roads; provide safe vehicles and mobility; safe roads; ensure safe use of roads; and ensure post-crash care. It remains to be seen if the country makes a headway with its move to halve the deaths and fatalities recorded on the roads. A situation where only about 15 per cent of the country’s over 160,000 kilometer of secondary and tertiary roads in Nigeria is paved, is nothing to cheer about.
MEMBER of the Senate Committee on Security and Intelligence, Senator Boluwaji Kunlere, yesterday said the Senate has not taken a stand on the planned removal of petroleum subsidy. He spoke with reporters in Akure, the Ondo State capital. Kunlere, who is representing Ondo South Senatorial District, said: “It has not been discussed officially; even when we were discussing another matter and people were trying to raise the issue, the senate president cut them off immediately. The motion which was raised on subsidy is not the same thing as fuel subsidy removal. “We were debating on the issue of how the sum of one trillion naira as against N240 billion on subsidy and people were trying to bring in whether subsidy must stay or not. The senate president cut short the debate and reminded members that the issue being discussed was the amount which was spent on subsidy. “Senator Bukola Saraki from Kwara State had raised a motion that government had overspent money on subsidy as against N240 billion, over a trillion naira had been spent. We are now asking who the beneficiaries of this subsidy are; who are the people that are buying kerosene at the official rate in this country?”
Boost for courier services
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OREMOST global logistics firm TNT Express Worldwide (Pty) Ltd has signed a partnership agreement with Stellar Africa in Nigeria . The firms said the partnership “allows businesses within Nigeria access to a viable and exceptional express courier solution.” A statement by Stellar Africa reads: “TNT Express and Stellar Africa have been in partnership for some time, working together to service the Ghanaian market. Consequently, the decision to work together in Nigeria was not a difficult one. “Stellar Africa, an eminent West African operator specialising in logistics, have a successful history in both Nigeria and Ghana. They are poised to bring this experience and expertise to the Courier market. A Company spokesman stated that “with substantial support we’re receiving from TNT Express, we’re going to be providing a superior business solution to those with express needs. “Stellar Africa’s Nigeria Head Office will be operating from Plot 147B, Younis Bashorun Street , Victoria Island in Lagos from November 14.”