The PUNCH reported that seven persons were confirmed dead in an accident that involved a Toyota Hiace bus and Mack tanker along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on New Year Day, Sunday, January 1.
The Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps in Ogun Ahmed Umar, who confirmed the crash, said the accident was caused by excessive speeding by the bus driver who lost control and hit a Mack tanker from the rear.
On the same Sunday, January 1, in a suspected case of murder and arson, a former employee of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Kehinde Fatinoye, and his wife Bukola were killed and set on fire by yet-to-be-identified assassins who invaded their residence in the Ibara area of Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The couple was murdered after returning from a crossover service, while their son, Oreoluwa Fatinoye, was whisked away by the assailants. Oreoluwa’s corpse was recovered two days later from a river in the Adigbe-Obada area of the state and buried by the family.
As if that was not scary enough, The PUNCH also reported that in Oyo State, on same Sunday, January 1, a driver drove into the dancefloor of a New Year party, killing five persons, before fleeing the scene. Four others were left in a critical condition.
As if in a chain reaction of a sort, in what appeared to be a cult-related clash, the President-General of Obosi town, in Anambra State, Ike Okolo, was shot dead at a petrol station at about 8pm on Monday, January 2. One other person in a tricycle was reportedly killed by gunmen on Tuesday night.
In Koko, Kebbi State, about 20 farmers reportedly lost their lives in a boat accident that occurred on Tuesday in Koko/Besse Local Government Area. Eighty persons who were onboard the boat at the time of the accident were rescued.
Also, a couple identified as Sulaiman Idris and Maimuna Haliru, was found dead in their home in Dawakin Tofa LGA of Kano State on Tuesday, after the police were alerted that the couple had not been seen since Monday.
The spokesperson for the state police command, Abdullahi Haruna-Kiyawa, said preliminary investigation revealed that the couple was suffocated from the fumes of a charcoal firepot lit to warm their room from cold.
“On receipt of the report, the Kano State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mamman Dauda, directed a team of detectives led by CSP Ahmed Hamza, DPO Dawakin Tofa Division to proceed to the scene.
“The bodies of the victims were removed from the scene and rushed to Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital, Kano, where a medical doctor confirmed them dead,” Haruna-Kiyawa said.
