Six people including a lawyer and three junior secondary students reportedly died at Aji, Enugu Ezike, Igboeze North Local Government Area of Enugu State, when a Mercedez 230 Saloon car reportedly skidded off the road and rammed into a crowd of people at a popular junction in the area.
Sources told Saturday Vanguard that the incident occurred, Wednesday evening, adding that the late lawyer who was identified as Ugochukwu Atigwe, was the son of the former Deputy Speaker of the Enugu State House of Assembly, Chief David Atigwe.
The three school students were writing their Junior West African School Certificate Examinations before their untimely death.
Ugochukwu was reportedly said to be seeing off a guest, on a ladies motorcycle on that fateful night but stopped at the junction to buy banana.
He was alleged to be sitting on the motorcycle, waiting to collect his balance from the banana seller when he was swept by the Mercedes Benz car, which rammed into the crowd, at the MCC Junction, killing many people.
Apart from Ugo, others who reportedly died on the spot, included Okwu Agbaji Cordelia Ogbu and Jude Ayogu. One of the deceased was alleged to be a female groundnut seller.
Among those said to have sustained serious injuries included one Mrs Ossai, Oby Obeta, Nonso Ojiwa, Eunice Ooja, and her relation, Kosi. It was not immediately known what happened to the driver of the Mercedez Benz 230 vehicle, (name withheld), but he was allegedly ‘’dead drunk,’’ at the time of the incident.
‘’The driver was dead drunk. In fact, he was on top speed, when he slept off on the steering,’’ Saturday Vanguard was told.
A woman who spoke on the issue at the accident scene also, said that many foot ball fans were watching the on-going World Cup matches at a popular drinking spot, when the Mercedes benz car veered off from its lane to the their side of the road in a very high speed and crushed the six people to death instantly.
According to the source, the driver of the Mercedes benz car was from Umuopu, a neighbouring community to Aji, and a son of a renowned politician popularly known as Ojukwu.
’’The driver escaped unhurt but a lady passanger in the vehicle went into a comma when the incident occurred. The number of casualties would have been much higher but for the fact that the car ran into some motorcycles parked along the road side few meters away from the viewing centre and got hooked.
Meanwhile, the remains of the victims have since been deposited at Enugu Ezike General Hospital Morgue.
