It was a day of outpouring of emotions, crying and wailing. Friends and family members of victims of the April 5 motor accident that occurred in Igbogui village in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State, created time to say bye-bye to their loved ones at the scene of a mass burial at a cemetery in Benin City. BANJI ALUKO, who captured the melancholic mood of the people at the cemetery, reports.
IF Nnaemeka Anyawu knew that death was awaiting him on the road on Friday, April 5, he surely would not have embarked on the infamous journey that violently took his life that date. According to Judith Anyawu, his sister, Nnaemeka had left that morning to see their parents in Enugu, where they live. “He left early in the morning and I followed him to the door as he waved goodbye. I never knew I would not see him again,” Judith said of his 31-year-old brother who graduated from the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) with a degree in Geology and Mining.
At the scene of the mass burial, Judith delivered an elegy-like short speech to the remains of his brother and those of 50 others who were all put into the ground early that morning. Describing her late brother as tall, chocolate-coloured, social and handsome, she asked why death took her brother at his prime. “Nnaemeka, you came to this world and departed quickly. You didn’t tell me it would all end this way. Anyway, God knows the best,” she offered while trying to control the tears that flowed freely from her eyes.
Off course she was not alone as families and friends of the victims of the accident involving an articulated vehicle belonging to the Dangote Group, a fuel-laden petrol tanker and an Enugu-bound luxury bus belonging to the Young Shall Grow Motors besiege the First Cemetery, Benin to pay homage to their departed loved ones. For many of them, the entire episode was like a dream as they watch as the remains of their people were neatly parked in polythene body bags and put into the dug ground that served as the mass grave.
While Judith only lost a brother to the accident, Kelvin Aniekwe was more unfortunate as he lost his wife and two young daughters.
Wearing a pair of black jeans, black shirt and a black sunshade, he could not offer a word throughout the time the bodies of the victims were conveyed from the lorry to the time they were put into the ground; he was just looking. Even when Apostle Barnabas Chukwukere of End Time Soul Winners Outreach, Benin City, prayed for the repose of the souls of the victims, he appeared not to betray emotions as he fixed his eyes on the mass grave in front of him.
His brother, who accompanied him to the site, informed that his brother’s late wife had left Lagos for Enugu with the two little girls to see her mother, the children’s grandmother. He was particularly concerned about the cause of the accident as he shouted, “Government should do something about this needless loss of lives o ! They should really do something. They must ensure that trailers and tankers are not allowed to move at night so that this kind of carnage will not occur on our roads again because if a petrol tanker was not involved in the accident, these people would not have died.”
There was also the pathetic story of Chika Nwafor, an accounting consultant with the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) whose close friend, Billy Anyaji, said could have missed the accident. “To me, it was one bad dream. Chika Nwafor was not somebody who just passed by. He was a blessing to everyone he came across. The question is what is the reason why good things don’t last? I had accompanied him to Ekene (Motors) that very day and not to Young Shall Grow. When I heard about the accident, I went to Ekene (Motors) because that was where I dropped him. What happened and how he ended up at Young Shall Grow, I don’t know but God understands everything that happened in this world. I think Ekene (Motors) had a problem and he crossed over after I left. He came to Lagos on Thursday from Enugu and slept in my house. The following day, he was on the road again to attend a wedding in Enugu on Saturday and see his family. I was telling him that he was a workaholic and that he needed to give himself a rest. I never knew our friendship would in this world would end this way,” he said mournfully.
The story of Amaka Okonkwo, a final year student of History and International Studies of the Nnamdi Azikwe University, also evokes pity. Ubaka Onochie, his uncle who came from Lagos for the burial said Amaka was returning to Awka from Lagos where she had gone to enjoy the Easter break. “Amaka Okonkwo was a lovely young girl in her early twenties. The last time I saw her was January. Two weeks before the accident, we spoke on phone and she told me that she would be coming to Lagos during the Easter break.
“My sister called me that she learnt she died in a motor accident and I immediately put a call through to his brother, who confirmed that her name was among the people who boarded a ‘Young Shall Grow’ luxury bus that was involved in an accident. I immediately traveled down to Benin where the said the corpse were deposited. On getting to UBTH, I was taken to the morgue but I could not identify the corpse. None of the corpse was identifiable because they were all roasted alive.
Speaking at the scene of the mass burial, the Chief Mortician of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, (UBTH) Mr Wilfred Aikhonogie, said 51 out of 53 bodies of the accident victims were given the mass burial as their bodies could not be identified while two victims, who could be recognised, were released to their families for burial.
It was not that the family members were contented that there people should be given mass burial anyway. Ani Justin, who lost a brother, Chibuzor, to the accident said he made frantic efforts to identify his brother. “I have no option but to accept the fact that my brother would be buried in another land,” he said while Chika Odiamah said he spent three days at the UBTH trying to identify his brother but when he could not, he finally agreed to the mass burial.
There were also knocks for the transport company over the manner the accident was handled. Billy Anyaji narrated his experience in the hands of the transport company, berating them for what he called their inhuman treatment. “I first went to Ekene Motors because it was there that I dropped my friend. I later went to the Young Shall Grow office at Jibowu. The people there denied that they didn’t have the identity of the people in the bus. They asked us to go to their headquarters at Maza Maza. On getting to Maza Maza, they said I should go to the computer room. From the computer room, they asked me to go to another place at Navy Town. When we got to Navy Town, I knew they were just dribbling us and that my guy had died. Throughout this period at their office, they were loading as if nothing happened.”
The same thing goes for Ubaka Onochie who said that the transport company kept families members of the victims in the dark. “They didn’t show enough concern and there were laxities on their part. They did not provide useful information and they kept turning people around. When I left UBTH on Monday, three days after the accident, none of the managers of the company had visited the hospital,” Ubaka stated.
The families were further peeved when they learnt that officials of the transport company were not present at the cemetery. Even when one of the bereaved family members shouted that the transport company was not present at the burial site, nobody said anything contrary to the effect, accentuating the fact that the transport company did not actually send any representative to the burial.
However, a policeman who spoke with the reporter said the decision of the transport company to shun the burial was understandable. “If they had sent any representative, that person could have been killed here. Remember they were accused of not doing enough when the accident happened. That may explain reason they did not send anybody here,” the policeman said while the burial was ongoing.
Sunday 28 April 2013
http://tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/component/k2/item/10568-igbogun-village-motor-accident-crying-wailing-as-victims-get-mass-burial
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